AFTERLIGHT

A masterpiece of modern dance, Afterlight is a visual feast that explores new possibilities in lighting and the beauty of movement.

Afterlight was a continuation of Russell’s ideas inspired by photographs of Vaslav Nijinsky and his geometric drawings, which began with the creation of the Olivier-nominated solo Afterlight (Part One) for Sadler’s Wells’ In The Spirit of Diaghilev. It was developed by Maliphant with lighting designer Michael Hulls, a pairing that has been called “the most important creative partnership in modern British dance” (Daily Telegraph) and features projections evolved in collaboration with animator Jan Urbanowski.

Set to Satie’s hauntingly beautiful Gnossiennes 1 – 4 and new compositions by Andy Cowton (Two, Push), Afterlight was originally performed by three dancers: Daniel Proietto, who also performed AfterLight (Part One), Silvina Cortes and Gemma Nixon. Thomasin Gülgeç has also performed the work.

PRESS

‘Michael Hulls’ lighting is breathtaking.'
‘With Hulls exceeding even his own astounding standards, AfterLight is a work that consumes the eye and seduces the senses.’
– The Times

‘A superb piece’
– The Sunday Times

‘A ravishing arena of light’
‘Hulls’ lighting is vital, the shadowed action awakening our perceptions about the dance’
– The Financial Times

‘Mesmerisingly beautiful’
– The Observer

‘Michael Hulls’ wonderfully moody lighting is occasionally murky. However, his shadows seem to breath with the choreography, fading, flowing and growing to unequivocally sensuous effect.’
– The Evening Standard

‘A miniature masterpiece’
– The Telegraph

‘Michael Hulls’ lighting is miraculous’
‘The lighting is never less than astonishing.’
‘What Hulls is doing is nothing less than giving visual shape to the transforming power of the dancing body and the dancing imagination.’
– The Guardian

'Michael Hulls’s mesmerising lighting'
– The Spectator

‘Michael Hulls’ ingenious lighting’
– The Stage

‘The genius of Michael Hulls’
‘I have never before felt a front gauze so unobtrusive, so imperceptible – it is a curtain of air, merely, upon which Hulls paints.’
– The Arts Desk

CREATIVE TEAM

CHOREOGRAPHY

Russell Maliphant

LIGHTING

Michael Hulls

COLLABORATIVE ASSISTANT

Dana Fouras

MUSIC

Andy Cowton, Erik Satie

COSTUME DESIGN

Stevie Stewart

ANIMATION

Jan Urbanowski

PERFORMED BY

Daniel Proietto / Thomasin Gülgeç;

Silvina Cortes / Olga Cobos / Camilla Spidsoe / Gemma Nixon

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Hugo Glendinning, Charlotte MacMillan

Premiere: Sadler's Wells, 2009