David Hughes Dance will once again be joining forces with Artistic Director of Conflux, Al Seed, to bring you ‘Last Orders’, the stunning follow-up to 2009′s award-winning ‘The Red Room’. Taking the tale of Sawney Bean, the legendary 16th century Scottish cannibal, as its inspiration, this original and enthralling work of dance theatre will take you on a hallucinatory journey through subterranean caves, magic doors and derelict nightclubs – inviting you to an endless party that becomes a nightmare, where the guests are pleasure, pain, horror, corruption, innocence, nostalgia and apocalypse. Nothing is what it seems…

In association with the National Theatre of Scotland.

Director/Choreographer – Al Seed
Creative Producer – David M Hughes
Lighting Design – Alberto Santos Bellido
Sound Design – Guy Veale
Production Design/Costume – Alex Rigg

Download information for Promoters. (This is a PDF file. You will need Acrobat Reader to view it.)
www.davidhughesdance.co.uk/2011-update/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/last-order-tech-rider.pdf

Pestilence, decadence, grotesquery…

David Hughes and Al Seed reunite to present their contemporary and visually shocking interpretation of Edgar Allan PoeÂ’s classic tale The Masque of the Red Death:

Barricaded in his opulent abbey-mansion a prince entertains a party of revellers whilst the world outside teeters on the brink of apocalypse. Weaving a multitude of dance traditions with extreme physical theatre, this collaboration is a true horror show for the stageÂ…

In the summer of 2009, David Hughes Dance completed a hugely successful tour including a run at The Traverse Theatre as part of its Edinburgh Festival Programme. This was the first time in its history that the Traverse have programmed a Dance Company as part of its Festival Season – history was made! The run of THE RED ROOM was an amazing success, receiving rave reviews and sell-out audiences. The company have since performed in Aschaffenburg and Dresden, Germany.

The company recieved a Herald award for the production and a Total Theatre Special Commendation.
www.theherald.co.uk/search/display.var.2525547.0.angels_fly_off_with_awards.php

Choreography David Hughes
Director Al Seed
Lighting Design Alberto Santos Bellido
Sound Design Guy Veale
Costume Design Eve Lambert

Download information for Promoters. (This is a PDF file. You will need Acrobat Reader to view it.)
www.davidhughesdance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/promo-pack.pdf

Quadruple Bill Programme

Imploded: Une Reverie Romantique (CHOR. Tanja Liedtke)
In 2007, Hughes was looking for a talented but relatively unknown choreographer to make something unconventional for his recently assembled ensemble company. His thoughts turned back to Tanja whom he had worked with in DV8 and she gladly jumped at the invitation to come to make a work in Scotland. The result of this fantastic adventure is ‘Imploded: Une Reverie RomantiqueÂ’. 100 years after its original premier, Tanja Liedtke has created a quirky, athletic and touching tribute to the first ever non-narrative ballet – ‘Les SylphidesÂ’. With dancers assuming the cheeky and mischievous attributes of sylphs, there are more than a few references to this infamous Ballet…although ballet, this certainly is not.

4:Freeze-Frame (CHOR. Rafael Bonachela)
Freeze Frame is set to a crazed contrast of sounds, from 13th-century Marin Codax to Nine Inch Nails; it is held together by its evolving dynamic and underpinned by the appropriate sounds on Nine Inch Nails and Throbbing Gristle. Bonachela majors in the kind of sinewy, angular choreography that needs honed, disciplined bodies to show off its clean lines and dramatic, inter-cutting patterns. HughesÂ’ company are absolutely in tune with the slow-burning build-up that takes the piece from early, considered tenderness to a full-on quartet of blistering energies. All of BonachelaÂ’s trademark moves are present: arms like unsheathed blades; high, pouncing leg work; duets that tangle, splinter and coil argumentatively. Yet Bonachela draws his thread of logic tight around them, so that even as the workÂ’s energy contracts and expands extravagantly, it is heading somewhere. Impressively, Bonachela has made a genuine ensemble piece.

L’Apres Midi D’un Faune (CHOR. Siobhan Davies)
The initial concept for the work came from DaviesÂ’ belief that similarities existed between Hughes and the famous dancer Najinsky. As she saw it, this was the birth of the work:

‘two dancers in different centuries who sat within their frames and form with such a vivid clarity.’

Davies initial focus lay with images of Najinsky and the original DeBussy music but this in itself made her feel wary – as if she was approaching something sacred and revered. The music has a strong sense of peace which was reflected in the static Najinsky images. This ultimately underlined her desire to work not with HughesÂ’ movement but his sense of stillness.

The Hurricane (CHOR. Christopher Bruce)
Many years ago while walking in Camden Market, London Christopher Bruce heard a piece of music and was so struck by it he spent several years trying to track it down. In 1996 David approached Christopher and asked him to create a solo work on him. Christopher decided there and then to find that piece of music. He discovered the album ‘Desire’ by Bob Dylan and the wonderfully moving song ‘Hurricane’ and the rest is history. The song tells the story of Rueben ‘Hurricane’ Carter a real-life African-American boxer who seemed destined to win the world heavyweight title. He was convicted of a triple murder charge and spent nearly a quarter of a century behind bars despite protesting his innocence. Carter subsequently wrote a book about the injustice and Bob Dylan wrote the song ‘Hurricane’ in protest. Many years into his sentence some Canadian lawyers took up Carter’s cause and he was equitted after 20 years of punishment.

>> Download the Quadruple Bill Tech Spec
This is a PDF file, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.