Group Works 1980-1989

Rosemary Lee

1997 – 1998

Rosemary Lee’s Group Works from 1980–1989 includes the works Treading the Night Plain and Three Studies in Courtship.

Treading the Night Plain

1997

A 30-minute work, commissioned by Ricochet Dance Company, for five dancers with music by Terry Riley played by the Kronos Quartet. The company toured it internationally.

“The Ricochet dancers were so wonderful I wanted to make them into mythic beings virtually, as if they had climbed out of the constellations and rushed across the sky to inhabit Terry Riley’s extraordinary music.”
– Rosemary Lee

“Mesmerisingly lovely… fine lyrical intensity that celebrates the clean uncluttered quality of Lees choreography while unleashing the rich spiritual essence of it.”
Mary Brennan, Glasgow Herald, 1997

“Lee has crafted a beautiful dance which captures something of the essence of flight movement that shifts from moments of serene lyricism to passages of frantic fluid action.”
Christopher Bowen, The Scotsman, 1997

“In treading the Night Plain she conjures a rich, mysterious world tat is curiously like those old ballets in which half the characters are under a spell. She makes the dancers appear not quite human, permanently on the edge of becoming something birdlike, animal or mythic. ..remarkable for the resonance and beauty of its fantasy.”
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, 1997

Music 2 String Quartets by Terry Riley played by the Kronos Quartet from the album Cadenza on the Night Plain
Performed by Ricochet Dance Company
Costumes by Louise Belson
Lighting design by Mark Parry

Three Studies in Courtship

1997–1998

“I wanted to explore different energies between dancing partners in response to the Bartok duets.”
– Rosemary Lee

Commissioned by Transitions Dance Company, a piece for three couples, set to extracts from Bartok’s 44 Violin Duos, which toured to Japan and Europe in 1998.
Music 44 studies for 2 violins by Bela Bartok
Performed by Transitions Dance Company
Costumes by the Laban Centre design staff
Lighting Design by Steve Munn

View images from the works on ResCen