Henri Oguike Dance Company

14 - 15 Feb 2007, Tianqio Theatre, Beijing

Founded in Autumn 1999, Henri Oguike Dance Company has rapidly established itself as a favourite among audiences and critics, with an exhilarating mix of works celebrating Oguike’s intense musicality and driven choreography.

Henri Oguike is passionate about the relationship between live music and dance. His work regularly features music and composers from diverse musical genres ranging from baroque to contemporary. In 2001, Henri Oguike Dance Company won the Time Out Live Award as “Most Outstanding New Company”. Since then, the company has received two TMA nominations for “Outstanding Achievement” and further three nominations from the Critics Circle National Dance Awards.

Repertoire

Second Signal (with live music)
Pulsating energy and thundering rhythms are the hallmark of Second Signal in which dancers go head-to-head with the on-stage drummers of leading taiko drumming group Taiko Meantime, twisting and coiling their bodies with furious energy.

Tiger Dancing
A bright and animated piece set to, Steve Martland, one of the UK’s leading composers’ specially commissioned score, inspired by Blake’s poem The Tyger. The plucked strings and springy lines of the score are reflected by the dancers’ sinuous and feline movements in Tiger Dancing.

Front Line (with live music)
Oguike’s signature piece, the searing and poignant Front Line unfolds against the vivid setting of Shostakovich’s 9th Quartet, played live by the Pavao Quartet.

Expression Lines
Set to the quietly beautiful Saharan blues of guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Expression Lines sees Oguike evoke the harsh contrasts of equatorial sand and sky in an intense yet reflective solo.