Richard Alston: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Richard Alston built British contemporary dance on a foundation of American postmodernism, arriving at the London Contemporary Dance School in its first intake and then crossing the Atlantic to study with Merce Cunningham. This mix traces that transatlantic line through Rambert, The Place, and the visual artists and composers whose work he answered with movement.

The Kynda mix for Richard Alston

• Key Influence · Summerspace by Merce Cunningham (1958). Alston left London in 1975 to study at the Cunningham studio in New York, and the two years he spent there reset his entire choreographic grammar: movement as its own subject, independent of narrative, with music and decor coexisting rather than illustrating. Summerspace, with its Rauschenberg pointillist set and Feldman score, is the purest statement of that coexistence — the aesthetic Alston carried back to Ballet Rambert as resident choreographer.','
• Influencia Obscura · Soda Lake by Nigel Hall (1968). Alston's most famous solo takes its title, its silence and its spatial logic from Nigel Hall's steel sculpture, named for a dry lake in the Mojave Desert. Alston made the 1981 dance to be performed in the sculpture's presence with no music at all — the dancer negotiating Hall's rod and disc as landscape and horizon. It is the clearest case of a visual artwork, not a score, generating an Alston structure.','
• Local Roots · Dark Elegies by Antony Tudor (1937). Alston became resident choreographer and later artistic director of Ballet Rambert, the company Marie Rambert founded in London and the institution that incubated British choreography from Ashton onward. Tudor made Dark Elegies for Rambert, setting Mahler's Kindertotenlieder as communal grief — the company's founding proof that serious music and choreographic austerity could carry a whole evening, a lineage Alston inherited directly.','
• Beyond the Medium · Pulcinella by Igor Stravinsky (1920). Alston was fundamentally a music-led choreographer, and Stravinsky was his central composer. He made Pulcinella for Ballet Rambert in 1987, going back past the Massine original to build fresh commedia dell'arte choreography on the score's reworked Pergolesi material. The piece shows his method at full stretch: the structure of the dance deduced from the structure of the music, phrase by phrase.','
• Peer · Fulcrum by Ian Spink (1979). Spink was a contemporary in the British new dance movement of the late 1970s, working in the same London orbit of Dance Umbrella and X6 before founding Second Stride — a company whose early seasons shared the circuit, and the funders, with Alston's work. Fulcrum is characteristic of that moment's pared experiment, and shows the alternative route Spink later took into dance-theatre collage.','
• From the Canon · Soda Lake by Richard Alston (1981). A solo for one dancer, no music, performed with Nigel Hall's sculpture as the only other presence onstage. It is the most distilled Alston work and the one most often revived — later danced by Michael Clark among others — because it reduces his method to its elements: a body reading space, rhythm internally generated, the visual object setting the terms. Everything in the later music-led repertory is latent here.','
• Key Collaborator · A Rake's Progress by Howard Hodgkin (1987). Hodgkin, one of Britain's major painters, designed sets and costumes for Alston at Ballet Rambert, most famously Pulcinella, bringing his saturated, gestural colour into the theatre. The partnership reflects Alston's lifelong habit of working with visual artists — Nigel Hall, Richard Smith — rather than conventional theatre designers, treating stage decor as an autonomous artwork sharing the space, exactly as Cunningham did.','
• Legacy · Mmm... by Michael Clark (1992). Clark danced in Ballet Rambert during Alston's tenure and performed Soda Lake, later returning to the solo as a signature of his own — the clearest line from Alston's austere formalism into the next British generation, however differently Clark deployed it. Mmm... shows the inheritance twisted toward punk and provocation while retaining the Stravinsky-and-structure seriousness Alston taught him.','

What influenced Richard Alston

• Merce Cunningham Dance Studio by Merce Cunningham. Alston’s official biography records his studies at the New York studio. “formed the UK's first independent dance group Strider in 1972 and three years later went to New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and with Alfredo Corvino.” (Richard Alston)
• London School of Contemporary Dance. Alston trained at the London School of Contemporary Dance. “And in the programme, there was a little slip of paper saying when the company has finished here, some of the dancers are going to teach at the London School of Contemporary Dance, off Oxford Street. And so, I went there and I went to th…” (Voices of British Ballet)
• The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. Alston choreographed excerpts from The Rite of Spring. “He recalls his appointment as Resident Choreographer in 1980 and recreating, with Marie Rambert’s blessing, ‘The Rite of Spring’ in 1981.” (Rambert)
• Viola Farber. Alston explicitly credits Farber with showing him another way of moving. “So, she had a huge influence on me because she really showed me there was another way of moving and she saw, both Sue [Siobhan Davies] and I, really took to it, and she therefore became very, very fond of us.” (Voices of British Ballet)
• John Cage. Alston describes Cage’s writing on dance and music as a revelation. (also via The Perilous Night) “In the book, In Silence, which is, which is John Cage’s first book, there is an article called Grace and Clarity, which he wrote quite early on when they [Cage and Cunningham] were doing their first solos. This… this was a revelation to me” (Voices of British Ballet)
• Summerspace by Merce Cunningham (1958). Summerspace (Merce Cunningham) — titan for Richard Alston “In 1976, Alston went to New York City to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1877). The Windhover (Gerard Manley Hopkins) — culture for Richard Alston (openlibrary.org)
• Pulcinella. Pulcinella (Igor Stravinsky) — culture for Richard Alston
• Soda Lake by Nigel Hall (1968). Soda Lake (Nigel Hall) — ghost for Richard Alston
• Cell by Robert Cohan (1969). Cell (Robert Cohan) — ghost for Richard Alston
• Agon by George Balanchine (1957). Agon (George Balanchine) — titan for Richard Alston
• The Perilous Night by John Cage (1944). The Perilous Night (John Cage) — culture for Richard Alston
• Trio A by Yvonne Rainer (1966). Trio A (Yvonne Rainer) — titan for Richard Alston

Peers and kindred spirits

• The Place. Alston became artistic director at The Place. “later that year started Richard Alston Dance Company when he became Artistic Director of The Place. Over 25 years Alston made more than 50 dances for his company before it folded in March 2020.” (Richard Alston)
• The Royal Ballet. Alston created work for the Royal Ballet. “was also commissioned to create work for the Royal Danish Ballet (Kingdom of Pagodas 1982) and the Royal Ballet (Midsummer 1983).” (Richard Alston)
• Ballet Rambert. Alston held resident choreographer and artistic director positions at Ballet Rambert. “In 1980 Alston was appointed Resident Choreographer with Ballet Rambert becoming Artistic Director in 1986. In his time there he created 25 dances for the company” (Richard Alston)
• Royal Danish Ballet. Alston created work for the Royal Danish Ballet. “he created 25 dances for the company and was also commissioned to create work for the Royal Danish Ballet (Kingdom of Pagodas 1982) and the Royal Ballet (Midsummer 1983).” (Richard Alston)
• Siobhan Davies. Alston recalls Davies dancing in his first work. “So, we were soulmates in that way and we did, we had the same sort of excitement. And she, also, had come from our art college. And, err, she was in my very first piece – four women, four incredibly patient women.” (Voices of British Ballet)
• Second Stride. Alston’s company participated in forming Second Stride. “In 1981, Alston's dance company, "Strider", had merged with choreographer Siobhan Davies 's company "Siobhan Davies and Dancers", to form "Second Stride".” (Wikipedia)
• Strider. Alston formed the dance company Strider. “Alston trained as a dancer at the London School of Contemporary Dance , and then choreographed for the London Contemporary Dance Theatre before forming the UK's first independent dance company, Strider , in 1972.” (Wikipedia)
• Jonathan Haswell. Alston choreographed for a series directed by Haswell. “In 2002, the BBC commissioned Alston to choreograph excerpts from The Rite of Spring for their Masterworks series directed by Jonathan Haswell.” (Wikipedia)
• Richard Alston Dance Company. Alston formed the Richard Alston Dance Company. “In 1994, Alston took up the post of artistic director at The Place and formed The Richard Alston Dance Company ; he made more than 50 pieces for the company.” (Wikipedia)
• Fulcrum by Ian Spink (1979). Fulcrum (Ian Spink) — peer for Richard Alston “In 1982, Spink co-founded Second Stride along with Siobhan Davies and Richard Alston.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Plain Song by Siobhan Davies (1981). Plain Song (Siobhan Davies) — geography for Richard Alston “In 1981, Alston's dance company, "Strider", had merged with choreographer Siobhan Davies's company "Siobhan Davies and Dancers", to form "Second Stride".” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rosas danst Rosas by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (1983). Rosas danst Rosas (Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) — peer for Richard Alston (wikidata.org)
• A Rake's Progress by Howard Hodgkin (1987). A Rake's Progress (Howard Hodgkin) — collaborator for Richard Alston “In 1981, Hodgkin had collaborated with the Rambert Dance Company's Resident Choreographer, Richard Alston, for his abstract work 1981 for the production of Night Music and later for the production of Pulcinella in 1987.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Dark Elegies by Antony Tudor (1937). Dark Elegies (Antony Tudor) — geography for Richard Alston
• Six Marimbas by Steve Reich (1986). Six Marimbas (Steve Reich) — collaborator for Richard Alston
• The Hard Nut by Mark Morris (1991). The Hard Nut (Mark Morris) — collaborator for Richard Alston
• Birdsong by Lea Anderson (1990). Birdsong (Lea Anderson) — peer for Richard Alston
• Strange Fish by DV8 Physical Theatre (1992). Strange Fish (DV8 Physical Theatre) — geography for Richard Alston

Who Richard Alston influenced

• Sigh by Martin Lawrance (2012). Sigh (Martin Lawrance) — legacy for Richard Alston “In 2003, Martin Lawrance's Grey Allegro was introduced into the repertoire – the first time another choreographer's work hasbeen performed by the company.” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Mmm... by Michael Clark (1992). Mmm... (Michael Clark) — legacy for Richard Alston “During that time, he created 25 works for Ballet Rambert as well as the Royal Danish Ballet (1982), the Royal Ballet (1983), and two solo works for Michael Clark (Soda Lake and Dutiful Ducks).” (en.wikipedia.org)