Ignite
Birmingham Royal Ballet - Dutch National Opera & Ballet
Ignite takes the work of the British painter William Turner The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons as the main source of inspiration. Turner based the painting on the actual event of a fire engulfing the Houses of Parliament in London on October 16, 1834. Londoners gathered along the river Thames to gaze in awe at the horrifying spectacle. William Turner used this disaster as a starting point to express man’s helplessness when confronted with the destructive powers of nature.
William Turner is known for his expressive colourisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent, paintings. Dissolved in brilliant swathes of colour and atmospheric effects that border on abstraction, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commonsfavours the elemental aspects of the conflagration that embodies Turner's style. This in turn becomes the puniness and ephemerality of man's efforts in the face of nature, referred to as the ‘Sublime’ in the Romantic period.
Following Turner’s use of colour to convey the magnificent light and heat of the burning building, Ignite takes the audience on a dynamic colour journey. The eye and mind of the spectators will be triggered emotionally in connection to the symbols, the themes and the colours which are translated from the painting to the stage.
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music Kate Whitley Dramaturge Fabienne Vegt Set & Costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lights Bert Dalhuysen Assistant Jose Carlos Blanco
Company Birmingham Royal Ballet World première October 2018
Nomination Benois de la Danse 2019. Critics’ Choice Best Premiere by Ali Mahbouba, Dance Europe.
Finalist Fedora Van Cleef & Arpels Awards 2018.
“Arqués and Whitley achieve more than description and impression here. Ignite is imbued with a profound sense of catastrophe, and of reckless human vainglory. It seems to sound a warning note to those who would rush in and destroy that which can never be recovered. Luke Jennings for The Observer”