DHD has just returned from a cold Germany (-22C) where it delivered performances in theatres in Ludwigshaffen and Saarlouis. This project was PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY THE TANJA LIEDTKE FOUNDATION.

www.tanja-liedtke-foundation.org

In April 2013 theatres in Meppen, Schweinfurt and Erfurt will receive works and DHD will also return to Aschaffenburg later in that year.

Weiss Bier und Wurst…..fantastisch!

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Mannheimer Morgen, Saturday 11 February 2012

• ‘David M. Hughes (after whom the company is named) dances the role of the Faun, giving a performance that evokes Nijinksy…’

• ‘…the way that Hughes dances the choreography is truly spectacular…’

Die Rheinpfalz, Saturday 11 February 2012

• ‘…On its very first appearance in Pfalzbau, David Hughes Dance Company from Edinburgh gave a powerful, eclectic and enthralling performance…’

• ‘…The show kicked off with “Imploded: Une Rêverie Romantique” – a real highlight of the night…’

• ‘…The 6-strong group of dancers including the lead has only existed for 6 years, but the 7 productions it has staged in this time have put it in the spotlight…’

DHD is excited to announce that it will be working with Lyon based choreographer Kylie Walters in 2012.

www.kylie-walters.com

THE CHINASKI SESSIONS

With a wink to Charles Bukowski’s cult character Henry Chinaski, choreographer Kylie Walters coaxes six testosterone-crazed men to live through an evening of debauchery and revelation. Trapped in a rock-band’s home studio as they try to finish their new album, this live concert/show collides virtuoso Belgian rock duo I Love Sarah’s (Jeroen Stevens/Rutger De Brabander) scorching math rock with four of Scotland’s best dancers (David Hughes Dance) amongst copious amounts of beer and bravaderie.

On stage, a homemade, squat-style space has been flung together, decked out with a drum kit and the musicians’ instruments.

This place is like a drop-in center, a halfway house for low life to hang out, play, dance, drink and dream – or maybe hallucinate.

Low-fi beginnings become hi-fi horrors as the fine line between recognizable every day reality and bizarre fictive world is trampled.

The rock-den sessions become a playing field for old grievances, one-upmanship and drunken reconciliations.

Vicious drumming, cutting wit and cunning moves form a microcosm of manhood stretching from sex-driven smut to sublime creative insight.

Chiseled beauty from the sweat covered wreckage of the night.

The Chinaski Sessions Tour will take us to the following venues:

OCTOBER
13th: Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh
15th: Paisley Arts Centre
17th: Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield
19th: Craignish Village Hall
22nd: Blackpool Grand
25th: Aberdeen: Dance Live
26th: Universal Hall, Findhorn
27th: Lyth Arts Centre
29th: Mull Theatre

NOVEMBER
1st: Pavillion Dance, Bournemouth
2nd: Howden Park Centre, Livingston
3rd: Byre Theatre, St. Andrews
6th: Ann Lanntair, Stornoway
8th: Macphail Centre, Ullapool
9th: Arches, Glasgow
10th: Arches, Glasgow

MORE DATES TO COME!!!

Born in New York in 1925, Robert Cohan trained at the Martha Graham School, and began his professional career in dance when he joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1946. He quickly moved to soloist and then performed throughout the world as a partner to Graham herself. In 1967, at the invitation of Robin Howard, he became the founder Artistic Director of The Place, London Contemporary Dance School and London Contemporary Dance Theatre, which he directed for the next 20 years.

Robert Cohan’s influence on the development of modern dance in Britain has been considerable. Having pioneered the teaching of contemporary dance technique in Britain, he was instrumental in the development of a vast following, not only for the repertory of LCDT in the 70s and 80s but through his pioneering residencies throughout the country, which laid the groundwork for the many other British companies that have grown up in the last twenty tears.

David Hughes Dance has once again joined 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 takes 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

David Hughes and Al Seed reunite to present their contemporary and visually shocking interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’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 stage…

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. Dresden, Ludwigshaffen and Saarlouis 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 Romantique’. 100 years after its original premier, Tanja Liedtke has created a quirky, athletic and touching tribute to the first ever non-narrative ballet – ‘Les Sylphides’. 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. Hughes’ 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 Bonachela’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 work’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 Davies’ belief that similarities existed between Hughes and the famous 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 Hughes’ 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.

He has since been privileged to work with David Hughes Dance Company, Earthfall Physical Theatre, Diversions The Dance Company of Wales, Gilmore Productions and more. Stuart was recently chosen to be part of the exclusive, National Theatre professional development programme where he has been refining his skills and knowledge in Arts Management. Stuart’s mentor is Deborah Bull,

Stuart is a Gemini, who likes tea and his toast done on one side. Stuart finds inner peace not only on stage but in gardening.

Favourite quote, “Live life before it lives you”.