Credit: Mark Bruce
Clear some space in your diary, darlings — a very special delivery has just landed from Yorke Dance Project, and it’s brimming with anniversaries, icons, and premieres that span nearly a century of dance history.
Modern Milestones is the name, and it’s quite literally that: a programme stacked with world premieres, UK premieres, and classics lovingly dusted off and reimagined. You can catch it first at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds (15 November), then on tour to Frome (28–29 November) before making its grand London premiere at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House (19–22 January).
So what’s inside this package?
- Christopher Bruce’s Troubadour – at 79, Bruce is back with his first new work in over a decade. And if you know him from Rooster (yes, the Rolling Stones one), you’ll know he doesn’t play it safe with music. This time? Six iconic Leonard Cohen tracks from his 2008 O2 Arena gig. Expect poetry in motion.
- Liam Francis’ CAST |x| – Yorke’s first-ever associate artist is only 32 and already shaking things up. A knot of fractured memory, moral ambiguity and emotional tension, all wound together with Jethro Cooke’s score made from cinematic voice fragments. on stage. This one simmers with tension, ready to boil over.
- Bella Lewitzky’s Kinaesonata (UK premiere) – fast, intricate and endlessly colourful, this 1970 whirlwind never lets up. A response to Ginastera’s piano sonata, it’s pure energy, revived most recently by Benjamin Millepied’s LA Dance Project. Now it finally storms UK stages.
- Martha Graham’s Deep Song – created in 1937, it’s Graham’s visceral cry against the Spanish Civil War. Vanished from the repertoire in the 1940s, only to be revived in 1989, it still hits like a punch to the gut today.
- Robert Cohan’s Lacrymosa – a tender duet, born on Yorke in 2015, inspired by grief, loss and the power of reunion. Gentle but deeply affecting.
Why “Modern Milestones”? Because this season also salutes:
- 100 years of the Martha Graham Dance Company
- Robert Cohan’s centenary
- Christopher Bruce’s 80th birthday (in November, no less)
- 60 years since Bella Lewitzky’s company began
- and Liam Francis’ first year as Yorke’s associate artist
Not bad for one parcel, eh?
Under Artistic Director Yolande Yorke-Edgell, Yorke Dance Project has carved a niche as the company that bridges past and present — immaculately reconstructing classics while championing fresh, daring voices. And with a dancer lineup featuring Abigail Attard-Montalto, Elly Braund, Jasmine Daniels, Eleanor Ferguson, Carina Howard, Dominic Rocca, Pierre Tappon, Amy Thake, Francis Thomas and Harry Wilson (plus guest stars Jonathan Goddard and Eileih Muir), this is a delivery you’ll want to sign for.
So lace up, lean in, and let Yorke Dance Project whisk you from Graham’s wartime contractions to Cohen’s haunting ballads — proof that dance history isn’t stuck in the archives, but alive and thrumming right now.
Special delivery complete. Who’s joining me in the stalls?
Yorke Dance Project listings information
2025
Saturday 15 November at 7.30pm
Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre, LEEDS
2 St Cecilia St, Leeds LS2 7PA
Box office: 0113 220 8008 / https://northernballet.com/theatre
Friday 28 and Saturday 29 November at 7.30pm
FROME Memorial Theatre
Christchurch Street West, Frome BA11 1EB
Box office: / https://fromememorialtheatre.org.uk/
2026
Monday 19 to Thursday 22 January at 7.30pm
Linbury Theatre, LONDON
Royal Ballet and Opera, Bow Street, London WC2E 9DD
Box office: 020 7304 4000 / https://www.rbo.org.uk/
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