GO London GO

Leapin’ Lizards! One of the best family musicals of all time!

Starring Su Pollard as Miss Hannigan.

From its Broadway beginnings to the classic film musical, this heart-warming,
rags-to-riches story of Annie’s adventures, from the New York orphanage to the luxurious home of Oliver Warbucks, is a tale that has been told all over the world for decades and will continue for many years to come.

Featuring a cast of over 40 talented artistes Annie has a brilliantly memorable score including It’s A Hard Knock Life, Easy Street and, of course, the legendary Tomorrow. With fantastically visual choreography and a side-splittingly funny script, it really is no surprise that Annie has become one of the best-loved family musicals of all time.

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau is one of the most exciting musicians in his field today. A regular performer both as a solo artist and with his Brad Mehldau Trio, he has toured and recorded extensively with great success.

Brad Mehldau's musical personality forms a dichotomy. First and foremost an improviser, he cherishes the surprise and wonder that can arise from a spontaneous musical idea. But he also has a deep fascination for the formal architecture of music and it informs everything he plays, the musical thought serving as an expressive device. Mehldau enjoys juxtaposing extremes, often following a complex improvisation with a stripped-down, emotionally direct ballad.

Jazz isn't the only string to Mehldau's bow. In 2005, soprano Renée Fleming premièred The Blue Estuaries and The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, works for voice and piano commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New York, and later recorded to much acclaim. Two years later he premièred his piano concerto The Brady Bunch Variations at the Châtelet in Paris.

RNCM in association with Serious

An evening of new dance from the North West.

Powerful, moving and sometimes stark dance works from three of the North West’s most exciting new dance companies. Selected from Turn 09, this dance triple bill encompasses a range of styles and subjects: an intense exploration of male friendship; a depiction of women trapped in a void; and a vivid battle with the demons of addiction.

Cover – Eight Eyes
A duet like no other; a girl dances with her bedclothes, exploring the mysterious lands where addiction & dependence can lead.

Eight Eyes consists of Maria Malone and Christopher Murray, original concept and devising from Marcus Drummond and directorial input from Yorgos Karamelegos.

Maria Malone is a professional choreographer and performer based in Liverpool. Co-Director of Movema – a world dance company, she regularly performs and creates diverse work in collaboration with other artists across the UK.

Christopher Murray is a graduate of Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts where he studied Design and Performance. He regularly performs as a puppeteer and physical theatre performer with The Suitcase Ensemble and international improvisation group Flukt.

Marcus Drummond has over 10 years experience in working with substance mis-users and has been involved in dance and music from an early age. He has provided a strong original concept for the show along with guidance and advice on the portrayal of the subject matter and live mixing of the soundtrack for some performances.

Yorgos Karamelegos is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Tmesis Theatre. He trained in classic drama, creative movement and elements of dance. He has worked in theatre, films and television and in collaboration with Malou Airaudo from Pina Bausch Tanztheater and trained with Philippe Gaulier as well as members of Theatre of Complicite and Genadi Bogdanov in Biomechanics and many other international practitioners. Yorgos teaches physical theatre in Liverpool and nationally.

Epilogue – Maelstrom Dance Company
Two women are thrown together into an unknown place; faced with the reality of not moving on, their fear, anger & acceptance become increasingly abstract & distant.

Newly formed Maelstrom Dance Company combines dance theatre and their own quirky, unique view of the world.

Maelstrom Dance is: Lindsey Brocklebank, a dance artist who works throughout the North West as dance lecturer, community artist and also agent and practitioner for Creative Partnerships . Maelstrom Dance Company is her core work and was shortlisted for the ‘Turn prize’.

Joining her in Maelstrom are: Katherine Hollinson, a dance artist who works throughout the North West as a community dance artist and dancer for, most recently, Balbir Singh. Katherine has just been awarded a bursary to train in New York. Julia Griffin, a co-founder of the GEF House Experiment and their work, Three Crows on the Road won the Turn Prize. Julia is also programme leader at Edge Hill University.

On Even Ground – Resonance Dance Company
A very personal journey of a long-standing friendship; two men explore the power & emotion, taboos & limitations of being friends.

Resonance is a collaboration between two established professional dancers and dance teachers, Craig Horton and Chris Keerie. We are long-standing friends whose professional lives have crossed at junctures, but we have chosen Resonance as the outlet both for creative developments as choreographers and, in this first work, On Even Ground, for exploring the nature of heterosexual male friendship. The work is based on our very personal experiences, which have informed the ideas explored. The piece deals with themes of loss and self-identity on a journey of friendship.

“The intense emotional and affective relationships described in the past as “non-sexual” cannot be said to exist today: modern heterosexual men can be buddies, but unless drunk they cannot touch each other, or regularly sleep together. They cannot affirm that an emotional affective relationship with another man is the centrally important relationship in their lives. It is not going too far, is it, to claim that friendship – if used to translate Greek philia or Latin amicitia – hardly exists among heterosexual men in modern Western society.” Paul Halsall

Craig Horton trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, since graduating he has worked professionally both as a commercial and contemporary artist. Most recent collaborations have been with Arcane Dance Theatre, Collision Dance and Kieran Sheehan Dance theatre. Craig is the founder member of Resonance and has been involved with community dance based projects over the last five years.

Chris Keerie trained at the Karen Brook School of dance and then the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. After graduating Chris joined Diversions Dance Company in Wales. Chris Joined AMP for their world tour of Swan Lake in 2002 before joining the Mark Bruce Company for the critically acclaimed ‘Sea of Bones’.