GUEST SUITES

A new work for 2012 by choreographer/director Jacky Lansley with composer Jonathan Eato and an outstanding creative team in dialogue with the Bach Cello Suites.

World Premiere - The Clore Studio, Royal Opera House
17 & 18 February 2012
Guest Suites is inspired by Bach's Cello Suites which Lansley and her frequent collaborator composer Jonathan Eato use as an artistic template.The first three suites will be performed live by outstanding cellist Audrey Riley and, on historic recording, by Pablo Casals. Eato's contemporary addition Suite Inserts - a 'compositional reworking' of four movements for cello and electronics - will be performed live by Riley and, on laptop, by Eato himself.

Central to Guest Suites is the idea of artists guesting in each other's worlds. A core ensemble of guest performers includes: Fergus Early, Esther Huss, Hannah Mi, Huri Murphy, Sanna Ryg, Tim Taylor and David Ogle.

photography: Hugo Glendinning

REVIEWS

The Clore Studio, Royal Opera House:
'Lansley, Eato and their guests excel in creating an evening of transitioning musical and visual images that stretch and deepen the perception of Bach's seminal suites. The different movements cascaded from one point to the next, though the pauses between each movement allowed each piece to have its own distinct signature – within both the music and the dancing'.
Erin Johnson - Bachtrack, 19 February 2012

'... Lansley treats the music as a series of rooms, which the choreography enters and explores. Five dancers, dressed in baggy white practice clothes, map out the work's architecture with gently dipping, folding moves. In some sections they move like contemporaries of Bach, their dancing elaborate with courtly detail. In others they are modern visitors, their body language turning harsher and more abrupt as the music, too, is invaded by contemporary voices – an electronic soundtrack overlaying the live cello.'
Judith Mackrell – Guardian, 20 February 2012

York Minster, Chapter House:
'Dance has long been linked with the church, if not so much in recent times.
Furthermore, the full majesty of the Chapter House is only revealed when it is stripped of chairs and brought to life. Nor can Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello sound any more ethereal than in its spacious acoustic.
On all three counts it was imaginative of choreographer Jacky Lansley, her seven dancers and cellist Audrey Riley, to choose this venue for Guest Suites'
Read the full article
Martin Dreyer 6th - York Press, March 2012


photography: Hugo Glendinning

To follow the progress of this project please visit Jacky's blog.
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© Jacky Lansley 2012