California Connections

Yorke Dance Project celebrates their 25th anniversary with a new programme honouring the company’s connection to California and the legacies of three pioneering female choreographers - Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham and Bella Lewitzky. This powerful mixed-bill illuminates the ground-breaking work of these three icons of contemporary dance.

Kenneth MacMillan’s ballet Isadora, was created in 1981. This original three-act ballet captured the life of San Francisco native, Isadora Duncan. YDP’s Isadora has been reimagined and distils MacMillan’s original into a one-act, chamber work exploring the conflict between Isadora’s search for love and her pioneering mission to change the very nature of the art of dance.

Martha Graham spent her formative years in Santa Barbara, California. She experienced her first dance performance, by the Denishawn Company, in Los Angeles, whom she soon went on to dance with. Graham created her masterpiece Errand into the Maze in 1947, exploring the depths of human fear and sexual power struggles, based on the legends of Ariadne, Theseus and the Minotaur

Bella Lewitzky was a dancer, choreographer, teacher, cultural crusader and an outspoken champion of artistic freedom, whose highly acclaimed company was rooted in Los Angeles. In 1994 she made the boldly sculptural and physically demanding Meta 4 with an original score by Robert Xavier Rodriguez.

Dancers: Ellie Ferguson, Jenny Hayes, Edd Mitton, Dane Hurst, Amy Thake, Abigail Attard Montalto, Pierre Tappon, Luke Ahmet and Harry Wilson