Alston Takes Cover is a unique project, co-commissioned by The Place and Dance Umbrella, and was seen in London’s Dance Umbrella Festival last year. The project gave selected choreographers the opportunity to create choreographic responses to Richard Alston’s classic Wildlife (1983). Alston Takes Cover will be presented as part of the EDge touring repertoire for 2012.
Read Richard Alston's biography
Tony Adigun
Tony is the founder and Artistic Director of cutting edge hip-hop company Avant Garde Dance (AG). Tony has a razor-sharp eye for composition, musicality and form and has developed a distinct company vocabulary. Tony’s work has been performed at Sadlers Wells, Southbank Centre, The Barbican, Brighton Dome and Stratford Circus. Tony is currently a Work Place Artist at The Place and Associate Artist at East London Dance.
Rachel Lopez de la Nieta
As a dancer Rachel has worked with many of the UK’s leading choreographers, including Charles Linehan, Rosemary Lee, Russell Maliphant, Lloyd Newson and is a founder member of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre. Her collective Dog Kennel Hill Project (with Henrietta Hale and Ben Ash) are associate artists at Dance4. Their current programme, commissioned by The Place Prize and sponsored by Bloomberg, will be showcased by the British Council at the Edinburgh Festival this summer.
Other credits include working with Peter Gill on Birtwistle double-bill, Max Vadukl for Yoji Yamamoto’s Coming soon, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's Medea and commercial collaborations with NE-O. Rachel has also worked for many years with opera directors David Alden and David McVicar.
Matthias Sperling
Choreographer and dancer Matthias Sperling is an Associate Artist with Dance4 and winner of a Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award. His recent works have included commissions for Candoco Dance Company, Southbank Centre and Dance Umbrella, and have been presented at international festivals including Springdance (Netherlands), Nottdance, Les Reperages (France) and Royal Opera House Firsts.
Originally from Canada, Matthias has been based in the UK since 1997, where he has collaborated and performed with companies including Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures and Siobhan Davies Dance. He is currently working on a duet with Rachel Krische for Dance Umbrella and Thought Dance, an interactive installation using EEG brain scanning technology to explore the notion of thought as a physical movement.
James Wilton
James’ choreographic career began whilst a student at London Contemporary Dance School, when his works Drift and Threads were toured by the third year performance group LC3. Upon graduation James was commissioned to re-work Drift for Scottish Dance Theatre for touring throughout 2010/11. James has also created works for a number of vocational training institutions, universities and youth dance companies.
In 2010 James created The Shortest Day for Resolution! at The Place. The piece went on to be performed both nationally and internationally, winning Sadler’s Wells’ Global Dance Contest. The Shortest Day was performed at Sadler’s Wells in January 2011. James is part of South East Dance’s Creative and Business Development Programme, has been selected to join the Dance Lines programme at the Royal Opera House and Arts Council East’s Escalator Dance Programme. James has also been shortlisted for the New Adventures Choreography Award.
Tony Adigun
Rachel Lopez de la Nieta
Matthias Sperling
James Wilton