Constructed by former Phoenix Dance Theatre artistic director Darshan Singh Bhuller, Class is a choreographed demonstration of the Graham technique. Used in company class daily with Phoenix’s dancers, Martha Graham originally created the technique to advance her dancers and their ability to ‘tell stories’, allowing them to extend the vocabulary of movement used within her work. Beginning calm and precise and ending energetic and upbeat, Class is a rarely seen insight into what it takes to be a dancer with Phoenix, all set to a pulsating contemporary score by Dharambir Singh.
"the dancers displayed their wonderfully-trained supple bodies with simple moves at first, gradually building up to an exciting finish with complex leaping and writhing."
Halifax Evening Courier, 2009
DARSHAN SINGH BHULLER | CHOREOGRAPHER
As dancer, rehearsal director, choreographer and teacher, his career with London Contemporary Dance Theatre spanned from 1979 to 1994. He was assistant director for Richard Alston Dance Company from 1994 to 1996, and was also a member of the Siobhan Davies Dance Company. Darshan has created works for international companies including Scottish Dance Theatre, CandoCo Dance Company and Nordic Dance Theatre, and has collaborated with numerous artists, choreographers, musicians and film-makers.
Darshan was artistic director of Phoenix between 2002 and 2006
DHARAMBIR SINGH | COMPOSER
Dharambir Singh is one of the most prominent North Indian Classical musicians based in U.K and studied Sitar with the late maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan. He studied for his MA at the School Of Oriental and African studies at the University of London. Dharambir was the artistic director of SAMYo the first national south Asian music youth orchestra and artistic adviser for Tarang, UK’s first South Asian senior ensemble. He is currently the academic manager for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s (London) BMus in Indian Music and is the recipient of the NESTA fellowship.
JULIE REBBECK | LIGHTING DESIGN
Since graduating from the University of Ripon and York St John in 1995, Julie has worked in house and toured internationally with Nottingham Playhouse, Teatro Kismet and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Over the past 14 years Julie has worked on over 100 shows, designing, plotting and operating production lighting for theatre, dance, musicals, circus and education work.
Julie now works freelance, most recently for Hype Dance Company's tour of Routes 09.
Class
Dancer Josef Perou, Apprentice Dancer Jitka Tumova and Artistic Director Sharon Watson explain what it takes to dance Class.
