CONTENTS

• Key contacts • Introduction to the production • Billing & credits • Marketing assets • Brochure & web copy • Target audiences • Selling points • Social media • Digital advertising targeting • Box office information • Press release • Press pitches & strategy • Press reviews & quotes • A quote about William Forsythe • About the works: an essay by Sarah Crompton • Biographies • Tour dates

Photos: Bill Cooper

KEY CONTACTS Daniel King Marketing Manager +44 (0)20 7863 8104 +44 (0)77 0295 1571 [email protected]

Charlotte Ansdell Senior Press Manager +44 (0)20 7863 8125 [email protected]

IMPORTANT NOTE

The information and assets described in this pack are available to download from http://media.sadlerswells.com. Please email [email protected] for a password.

All copy must be used as provided. No changes are permitted without the agreement of Sadler’s Wells.

All marketing materials, audience programmes, digital content and press releases must be proofed by Sadler’s Wells before being used. Please send all proofs, allowing adequate time for approval to [email protected] and [email protected].

INTRODUCTION TO THE PRODUCTION

Sadler’s Wells presents a brand-new evening of works by William Forsythe. Mixing existing pieces with new creations, the evening features two reimagined repertory works, Dialogue (DUO2015), which was last seen in ’s final dance programme and Catalogue (Second Edition), the first edition of which premiered in October 2016; two new pieces, Epilogue and Seventeen/Twenty One, as well as Prologue, an excerpt of Seventeen/Twenty One. This programme premiered at Sadler’s Wells, 4 October 2018 to rave reviews.

★★★★★ “A rare and revelatory evening”

★★★★★ “A richly satisfying programme: witty, unpredictable, superlatively danced”

★★★★★ “Quiet it may be, but William Forsythe’s latest evening of dance at Sadler’s Wells resounds with an extraordinary cerebral and imaginative force” The Stage

“Seventeen/Twenty One” is a humdinger of a work” New York Times

BILLING AND CREDITS

Note: follow this layout.

A Sadler’s Wells Production A Quiet Evening of Dance By William Forsythe

and

Brigel Gjoka, Jill Johnson, Christopher Roman, Parvaneh Scharafali, Riley Watts, Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit and Ander Zabala.

Co-produced with Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; Festival d’Automne à Paris; Festival Montpellier Danse 2019; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; The Shed, New York; Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens; deSingel international arts campus, Antwerp.

First performed at Sadler’s Wells London on 4 October 2018.

Winner of the FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018.

Winner of Best Modern Choreography Award at The Critics’ Circle Awards 2020

THE FEDORA PRIZE

A Quiet Evening of Dance won the FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018. This should be credited in all marketing and press information - logos and details can be downloaded from http://media.sadlerswells.com. Please email [email protected] for a password.

BROCHURE & WEB COPY

A Sadler’s Wells London Production A Quiet Evening of Dance By William Forsythe

William Forsythe is undoubtedly one of the foremost choreographers of his generation. For this unusual configuration of new and existing work, Forsythe has imagined something akin to an evening of chamber music, designed to be listened to.

The works range from sparse analytic condensation to baroque inspired counterpoint. The intricate phrasing of the dancers’ breath is the primary accompaniment for a distillation of the geometric origins of classical ballet.

The evening is performed by some of Forsythe’s most trusted collaborators, who promise to provide insight into the workings of ballet and the mind of the man who has dedicated his work to this task. The programme includes two new pieces, Epilogue and Seventeen/Twenty One; two reimagined repertory works, Dialogue (DUO2015) and Catalogue (Second Edition), as well as Prologue, an excerpt of Seventeen/Twenty One. Produced by Sadler’s Wells London. Co-produced with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, le Théâtre du Châtelet and Festival d’Automne à Paris; Festival Montpellier Danse 2019; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; The Shed, New York; Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens; deSingel international arts campus (Antwerp). First performed at Sadler’s Wells London on 4 October 2018.

Winner of the FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018.

Winner of Best Modern Choreography Award at The Critics’ Circle Awards 2020

MARKETING ASSETS

All assets are available to download from: http://media.sadlerswells.com. Please email [email protected] for a password.

Available images & photography

• Lead marketing image © Bill Cooper • Production photos © Bill Cooper

Available trailer & digital content

• Production trailer (60 secs)

The trailer is provided without credits or branding so you’re able to adapt it to your house style. Please follow these guidelines and send to [email protected] for approval.

Production trailer edit MUST include:

Text: A Sadler’s Wells London production Text: William Forsythe: A Quiet Evening of Dance Logo: Sadler’s Wells secondary logo

Logos

• Sadler’s Wells logos are available to download

TARGET AUDIENCES

• Fans of dance (contemporary, ballet and hip hop) • Fans of fine art and architecture • Fans of dancers / dance companies: Semperoper Ballett, Company Wayne McGregor, Sylvie Guillem, and Ballet Frankfurt • Fans of baroque and classical music • Dance teachers, dance students and dance schools

SELLING POINTS

• The production features three new works, as well as two reimagined repertory works. • A Quiet Evening of Dance won the prestigious Fedora Prize. • The production received 5-star reviews at its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells (UK) in October 2018, including 5 stars in The Guardian, Financial Times and The Stage. • Forsythe fuses elements of hip hop into his new works, with Rauf "Rubberlegz" Yasit performing. • For this programme, Forsythe works with seven of his most trusted collaborators.

About William Forsythe

• William Forsythe has been active in the field of choreography for over 45 years. • Forsythe’s works are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the , New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet, , National Ballet of Canada, Semperoper Ballett Dresden, in London and the Paris Opera Ballet. • Awards received by Forsythe and his ensembles include the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards, Olivier Awards, Hessische Kulturpreis/Hessian Culture Award, The Wexner Prize, Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale, Samuel H Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement and The Grand Prix de la SACD amongst others. • Forsythe has been conveyed (is this the right word?) the title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1999) by the government of France. • Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural, performance installations and film works by organisations including the Hayward, MoMa (New York), ICA (Boston) and the Venice Biennale, amongst others. • Forsythe is an honorary fellow at Trinity Laban in London and holds an honorary doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York. • Forsythe is a current professor of dance and artistic advisor for the Choreographic Institute at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES Sadler’s Wells Twitter: @Sadlers_Wells Facebook: /SadlersWells Instagram: @Sadlers_Wells

The Company Instagram: @p.scharafali Instagram: eberginger Instagram: @rubberlegz

DIGITAL ADVERTISING/WORD SUGGESTIONS American: Boston Ballet, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham, San Francisco Ballet.

Contemporary dance: Merce Cunningham, , , Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London Contemporary Dance School, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor, , contemporary dance, Martha Graham, Sasha Waltz, Sadler's Wells Theatre, Royal Academy of Dance, The Place, , Meg Stuart, Wayne McGregor, Random Dance, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Akram Khan (dancer), Matthew Bourne, William Forsythe. Ballet: The Australian Ballet, Ballet technique, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky, Scottish Ballet, Royal Ballet School, Ballet, Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, School, Northern Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, , English National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet, Classical ballet, National Ballet of Canada, New York City Ballet, Cuban National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Opera House, Bolshoi Ballet. Classical Music: London Symphony Orchestra, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Academy of Music, Sub Pop, BBC Radio 3, Barbican Centre, English National Opera, Royal Albert Hall, Classic FM (UK), BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Cadogan Hall, Rough Trade Records, Royal Opera House.

BOX OFFICE INFORMATION

• Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes (inc. 20 minute interval) • Special effects: No strobe or haze effects.

PRESS RELEASE

Sadler’s Wells presents William Forsythe A Quiet Evening of Dance Dates: Performance times: Ticket prices: Ticket Office contact details:

One of the foremost choreographers of his generation, William Forsythe presents A Quiet Evening of Dance at VENUE on DATES.

For this unusual configuration of new and existing work produced by Sadler’s Wells, Forsythe creates an intimate, pure evening of choreography, stripped down to its essence. The works range from sparse analytic condensation to baroque inspired counterpoint. The intricate phrasing of the dancers’ breath is the primary accompaniment for a distillation of the geometric origins of classical ballet.

The programme comprises two new pieces, Epilogue and Seventeen/Twenty One; two reimagined repertory works, Dialogue (DUO2015) and Catalogue (Second Edition), as well as Prologue, an excerpt of Seventeen/Twenty One. Forsythe co-creates the evening alongside previous and current performers of The Forsythe Company/ Frankfurt Ballet: Brigel Gjoka, Jill Johnson, Christopher Roman, Parvaneh Scharafali, Riley Watts and Ander Zabala. The evening also features choreography and performances by long-standing collaborator Rauf “Rubberlegz” Yasit. Rubberlegz developed a unique form of movement taken from b-boying which saw him travel the world to perform. The production won the prestigious FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018, as well as the Best Modern Choreography Award at The Critics’ Circle Awards 2020.

DUO2015 received its world premiere in 1996 and was last seen in Sylvie Guillem’s final dance programme in 2015. DUO2015 is a clock composed of two dancers. An “intricate, almost baroque piece” is how Forsythe describes Catalogue (Second Edition) an update on the work created in 2016.

The evening is performed by some of Forsythe’s long-term collaborators who provide insight into the workings of ballet and the mind of the man who has dedicated his work to this task.

The multi-award winning William Forsythe has been active in the field of choreography for over 45 years. His work is acknowledged for reorienting the practice of ballet from its identification with classical repertoire to a dynamic 21st century art form. His deep interest in the fundamental

principles of organisation has led him to produce a wide range of projects including installations, films, and web-based knowledge creation. Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the , where he was appointed resident choreographer in 1976. Over the next seven years, he created new works for the Stuttgart ensemble and ballet companies in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt, where he created works such as Artifact, Impressing the Czar, Limb’s Theorem, The Loss of Small Detail, A L I E / N A(C)TION, Eidos:Telos, Endless House, Kammer/Kammer and Decreation.

After the closure of Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Works produced with this ensemble include Three Atmospheric Studies, You made me a monster, Human Writes, Heterotopia, The Defenders, Yes we can’t, I don’t believe in outer space, The Returns and Sider. Forsythe’s most recent works were developed and performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, ’s Royal Ballet and The Paris Opera Ballet. Amongst his architectural and performance installations include White Bouncy Castle, City of Abstracts, The Fact of Matter, Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2 and Black Flags. Forsythe is the first choreographer to be included in the Gagosian Gallery’s roster of artists.

A Sadler’s Wells 20th Anniversary Commission

A Sadler’s Wells Production

Co-produced with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris; Théâtre du Châtelet and Festival d’Automne à Paris; Festival Montpellier Danse 2019; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; The Shed, New York; Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens; deSingel, Antwerp

Winner of the FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018

Winner of Best Modern Choreography Award at The Critics’ Circle Awards 2020

Press contact:

NOTES TO EDITORS

ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS Sadler's Wells is a world-leading creative organisation dedicated to dance in all its forms. With over three centuries of theatrical heritage and a year-round programme of performances and learning activities, it is the place where artists come together to create dance, and where people of all backgrounds come to experience it – to take part, learn, experiment and be inspired. Audiences of over half a million come to its London theatres each year, with many more enjoying its touring productions at venues across the UK and around the world, and accessing its content through digital channels.

Sadler's Wells commissions, produces and presents more new dance work than any other theatre in the world, embracing the popular and the unknown. Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 160 new dance works to the stage, many of them involving its 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today. It also nurtures the next generation of talent through research and development, running the National Youth Dance Company and a range of programmes including Wild Card, New Wave Associates, Open Art Surgery and Summer University. Sadler's Wells' learning and engagement activities reach over 25,000 annually through programmes that take dance out into the community and invite communities into the theatre. Projects include community productions and the renowned Company of Elders, its resident over-60s performance group, while events range from pre and post-show talks with dance artists to classes, workshops and assisted performances. Located in Islington, north London, the current building is the sixth to have stood on site since entrepreneur Richard Sadler first established the theatre in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera having all started at Sadler's Wells.

PRESS PITCHES & STRATEGY

• William Forsythe is one of the foremost choreographers of today. • William Forsythe credits the ensemble of dancers as co-creators of the evening. • The production features two new works, as well as revivals of two acclaimed pieces. • A Sadler's Wells 20th anniversary commission. • A Quiet Evening of Dance won the prestigious Fedora Prize. • The production received 5-star reviews at its world premiere at Sadler’s Wells in October, including 5 stars in The Guardian, Financial Times and The Stage. • Forsythe fuses elements of hip hop influences into his new works, with Rauf "Rubberlegz" Yasit performing. Spokespeople

• William Forsythe is available for a few selected interviews. The dancers are also available as spokespeople, they are all close collaborators with Forsythe.

PRESS REVIEWS & QUOTES The Guardian ★★★★★ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/05/william-forsythe-a-quiet-evening-of-dance- review “A rare and revelatory evening” “It reveals a kind of introverted virtuosity that leaves you dumbstruck” “Undramatised yet utterly fascinating, it feels like a choreographic secret, offered freely, without explanation”

Financial Times ★★★★★ https://www.ft.com/content/8b9c8254-c885-11e8-86e6-19f5b7134d1c “A richly satisfying programme: witty, unpredictable, superlatively danced”

The Stage ★★★★★ https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2018/william-forsythe-quiet-evening-dance-review- sadlers-wells-london/ “Cerebral, mischievous and sublime” “Quiet it may be, but William Forsythe’s latest evening of dance at Sadler’s Wells resounds with an extraordinary cerebral and imaginative force” “The level of intricacy and precision is exhilarating, the lines fizzle and sing”

Independent ★★★★ https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/a-quiet-evening-william- forsythe-sadlers-wells-london-cast-tickets-a8570631.html “A cerebral, sometimes funny evening: Forsythe tenderly taking ballet to bits, so he can expose and play with its mechanisms.”

Time Out (Melbourne) ★★★★ https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/dance/a-quiet-evening-of-dance-review “There’s no doubting the technical beauty of A Quiet Evening of Dance. Every movement feels measured to within a millimetre and the dancers seamlessly move from autonomous to synchronised”

A QUOTE ABOUT WILLIAM FORSYTHE

“There is no one on the planet who is advancing the concept of what the art of dance can be in the 21st century like Bill Forsythe,” said Joseph V. Melillo, executive producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “He is a pioneering spirit, out in the wilderness trying to discover new territory. I’m in awe of his commitment to always finding a new path” New York Times

ABOUT THE PIECES

A Different Focus by Sarah Crompton This essay is provided here for reference about the work only. It must not be reproduced without permission and payment to: [email protected]

It is unlikely many people would hang an evening of dance on the twin poles of Louis XIV’s codification of “La belle danse” in 17th century France and the form of hip hop b-boying developed by a dancer from 21st century America. But it is entirely characteristic of choreographer William Forsythe to do so. His entire career has been built on exploration and discovery, taking the art of ballet to which he is devoted, using it in different ways, or placing it in new and surprising contexts with one overriding aim. “My goal is to make people see ballet better. That’s always been my goal.” His starting point for this quietly thought-provoking evening was DUO2015, a piece he originally created for two female dancers in Ballet Frankfurt in 1996. When he adapted it for The Forsythe Company, seven years later, two male dancers, Brigel Gjorka and Riley Watts, understudied the roles, but never performed it on stage. So, when Sylvie Guillem was looking for a Forsythe piece to include in her final programme of dance before she retired, the choreographer – her friend since the start of her career – suggested the two men should perform Duo. But then, in Modena, just before the start of performances, Forsythe radically modulated the work. It remained a brainy and brilliant duet, with the dancers subtly responding to the rhythm and nuance of each other’s movement, co-ordinating perfectly in space and time. But he made it quieter and less obviously virtuosic. It is still a work of staggering complexity, but now it starts quietly before becoming increasingly propulsive and expansive. Forsythe wanted the result to be seen more widely. “I wanted to get it out there because it is an unusual use of ballet. All the movements are based on the classical vocabulary, although it offers an alternative structuring of academic material. It creates a place where ballet can thrive, without set, costumes, orchestra. It relies on the proportioned organisation of ballet. It is a work to be listened to as well as watched. You can hear it ticking.” In recent years, particularly since he gave up running a full-time company in 2015, Forsythe has returned to ballet as his principal language. “I am a native ballet speaker,” he says. “I think I can contribute to the conversation.” But while he looks to the future, he has also been thinking about the origins of ballet. For example, Catalogue (Second Edition), which was first performed as part of Sadler’s Wells Elixir Festival in 2017, reverts to first principles.

“It starts from the idea that ballet is a practice that folds and unfolds limbs. This folding and unfolding begins with several points of the body – the hips, the shoulders – and then goes through a catalogue of their relationship to the arms, the legs, the head. Fundamentally it is like a mechanical sketch of the foundations of ballet. It shows how ballet works and how counterpoint works within the framework of the body.” That work, performed by Christopher Roman and Jill Johnson, both formerly of Ballet Frankfurt, and danced in silence, led him in turn to the idea for Act 2, newly created over five weeks at his studio in Vermont and later in three weeks at Sadler’s Wells. He had been reading Jennifer Homans’ magisterial history of dance Apollo’s Angels, in particular the early chapters where she describes how Louis XIV’s dancing masters such as Pierre Beauchamps and Pierre Rameau develop dance from a form of etiquette into a strict system of movement. “The body was organised like a court in miniature,” she writes, “with complicated rules governing the movement of its limbs. Metaphors linking the body of the king to the body politic and the cosmic order – or the head of state to its subject limbs, which must coordinate and conform to perceived natural hierarchies and laws – were brought fully into play.” She continues: “At the heart of the endeavour were the five positions of the body…[their] importance cannot be over-stated: they are the major scale, the primary colours from which all other constructions in ballet arise. Without them, la belle danse was a social dance; with them, the crucial leap from etiquette to art was made.” What Forsythe is presenting in the new work is his own contemporary version of the rules behind those early court dances – with the twist of adding to the mix the skills of hip hop dancer Rauf “Rubberlegz” Yasit, with whom he had been working on other projects, including a film (with Watts) for the Paris Opera Ballet. “Ballet and hip hop are linked by a three-dimensional grid, that is geometrically prescriptive. Both are very specific and highly technical styles, organised around a matrix.” What emerges from all these currents is “an essay on the baroque.” Watching him embellish these thoughts in the studio, with dancers (also including former Forsythe company alumni Parvaneh Scharafali and Ander Zabala) who understand his style and his way of working gives an insight into how he builds a piece. The ideas are his; he has developed and practised them on his own body. Yet he relies on the ability of the dancers to amplify them – and the dancers repay this trust by tireless repetition of minutely different variants on a theme. Forsythe has a habit of saying things like: “Let’s try the duo version of the trio with the solos” and the dancers understand him, throwing off steps with an insouciance that disguises their extreme difficulty. “It’s your brain that hurts as well as your legs,” says Johnson.

Yasit has fitted seamlessly into their intense, concentrated way of working. He learnt the rudiments of ballet in five weeks and is now in a position to meld his own techniques (in which he is mainly supported on his arms) with Forsythe’s own intricate movements. One solo, where he flips effortlessly on the ground, moving his entire weight without seeming to do anything, prompts spontaneous applause. Yet all the dancers are throwing off equally rigorous and refined steps, revealing a musicality and sensitivity that runs through every muscle. “I could not have made this work without the native musicality of these dancers,” Forsythe says, admiringly. “It is uncanny how musical they are.” This is particularly important since one of his aims is to reveal how different music – from the crystalline beauty of the baroque compositions of Jean-Phillippe Rameau, to the spare experiments of Morton Feldman – affects not only how a spectator sees the dance, but also how the dancers perform it. “It’s fascinating how your perception changes as soon as the acoustic context changes,” he says. “And the dancers do dance differently depending on what is accompanying them.” Just as in his recent piece Playlist (Track 1, 2) for English National Ballet he altered the reception of virtuoso ballet steps by setting them to house music, here the difference between watching the same steps unaccompanied and danced to Rameau is like seeing a different work. “The music suddenly acts as a spotlight and shines on the structure and makes them glitter, so to speak. You understand their temporal complexity more deeply.” It all comes back to Forsythe’s most persistent theme: bringing dance into a different focus, making it speak differently to retain its relevance and power. “I had an epiphany. You look at an intriguing piece of art and you think, I didn’t know you could do this with that.” Which is also the loud revelation of this quiet evening.

TOUR DATES

Visit: https://www.sadlerswells.com/touring/forsythe/