Dance show is poetry in motion

RICHARD Alston brings his dance company back to Oxford Playhouse on their 20th-anniversary tour with a mixed bill on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 26 and 27.

Alston’s choreography and world-class company of 10 dancers combine three pieces of music by Benjamin Britten and three very different poets.

They will perform the mesmerising Illuminations, which paints a vivid picture of the turbulent life of Arthur Rimbaud, a young poet who was a visionary and a misfit in equal parts. There is also Hölderlin Fragments â?? Britten songs set to the enigmatic lyrics of Friedrich Hölderlin, and Alston’s Rejoice in the Lamb,  danced to fervent poetry  by Christopher Smart.

The bill concludes with associate choreographer Martin Lawrance’s latest piece, Burning, which is as passionate and turbulent as its music, the Dante Sonata of Franz Liszt, played live.

Tickets for the 7.30pm performances cost £11 to £22 from 01865 305305 or www.oxfordplayhouse.com