Phoenix Theatre Reflected at the Playhouse

Phoenix Dance Theatre returns to the Liverpool Playhouse next week with Reflected, a programme of four contrasting and musically diverse dance works. The company has a strong reputation for presenting engaging, moving and entertaining mixed programmes, and were last seen in Liverpool when they premiered Declarations at the Playhouse last September. Reflected opens with the world première of artistic director Sharon Watson’s latest creation, Melt. Set to the music of Leeds-based Mercury Music Prize nominees Wild Beasts and performed by seven gliding and swooping dancers, the gravity-defying piece features aerial dance which merges the stage and the space above.  Ballett Basel artistic director Richard Wherlock’s debut work for Phoenix, Switch, delivers six vibrantly clad dancers in perpetual motion, backed by a pulsating soundtrack from dance composer b.free. Philip Taylor’s What It Is, a dramatic and emotional journey for a trio of dancers, takes its name from one of two early Amy Winehouse songs that score the choreography.  Finally, first performed by Phoenix in 2006, Lost Dog’s (Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer) confrontational duet Pave Up Paradise revisits Adam and Eve after their fall from grace. With spoken word interludes and live acoustic arrangements of Jeff Buckley, Strokes and Gomez tracks, Pave up Paradise is described as a witty and irreverent examination of guilt, innocence, and lust for forbidden fruit. 

Sound good? Check it out at the Playhouse on Wednesday and Thursday, April 27 and 28.