Created for
Richard Alston Dance Company
 

Music
Maurice Ravel - Sonatine and Oiseaux Tristes (1905), Une Barque sur l’Océan (1905), La Vallée de Cloches from Miroirs (1905)
 
Lighting
Charles Balfour
 
Costumes
Julien Macdonald

 

Duration

29 minutes

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Originally danced by a cast of

4 women 3 men 

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Video Excerpt

Filmed by Marco Benozzi, Valentina Formenti and Steve Jackman at The Place. 

Edited by Steve Jackman. Produced by The Place.​

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Shimmer is danced to the exquisite music of Ravel. The surface is often sun-drenched and sensual, but deeper there are underlying strangely resonating chords. The piece (and this video) ends with a male solo (here danced wonderfully by Nathan Goodman) to a rich web of sound suspended between bell-like repeated single notes. I think of this magical figure as in some way akin to Shakespeare's Prospero, alone on his island but unassailably powerful.

Shimmer was made in memory of the art critic Bryan Robertson, whose generous friendship and lively enthusiasm were an inspiration for me that still lasts.

 

First performed by the Richard Alston Dance Company at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 20 February 2004.