Contemporary dance from ‘best in world...’

In the build-up to its main performances tomorrow (Saturday) at 5.30pm and 7.30pm, members of the company ran music and dance workshops at local schools and colleges.

Professional dancers and musicians visited Helenswood (pictured), the Hastings and St Leonards Academies, and Rye College.

The company will tomorrow be performing Uprising, an extract from Political Mother and a new musical piece from the company band.

In May 2010 artistic director Hofesh Shechter presented his first full-length work Political Mother which premiered at the Brighton Festival.

Featuring Shechter’s cinematic score, the piece was performed by 10 dancers and featured a band of eight live drummers and electric guitarists.

The success of the show gained the company worldwide attention.

It has since toured Australasia, the United States, Asia, and across Europe gaining a huge following.

Returning to the piece in 2011, Sadler’s Wells commissioned Hofesh to create Political Mother: Choreographer’s Cut, with an even larger band of 24 musicians and 16 dancers.

The show was deemed ‘a mind blowing mix of sound and vision’ by critics and cemented Hofesh’s reputation as both a choreographer and composer of recognition.

Fresh from the show’s success, the company worked in collaboration with the sculptor Antony Gormley to create Survivor, a large-scale art/music performance which premiered at the Barbican in January 2012.