I'm delighted to be presenting the new work 'How Do You Know All This?' created with choreographer and Rambert pal Hannah Rudd, and ballerinas Hannah Grenell and Nadia Mullova Barley at this year's ROH Draft Works.
Since these times have been so heavy, sad and strange for us, Hannah was determined a sense of joy should be at the heart of our collaboration. The music became an expression of something joyful and subversive, using reshaped words from an interview with Ella Fitzgerald- a key musical inspiration for Hannah- and words from an interview with the dancers, combined with the beautiful trumpet-playing of my old Lamb pal, Kevin G Davy. The piece overall grew in this spirit- that though in all our different ways we hold trauma and the demands of the years in our bodies, dancing and making can express our collective resilience and help us to feel free.
(Unfortunately at the eleventh hour, twenty of the Royal Ballet's dancers- including Nadia and Hannah- had to self-isolate due to Covid19. New dates soon...)
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