choreography: Richard Alston
When composer Simon Holt asked Richard Alston if he would choreography a piano piece of his, Nigredo, Alston decided to take on not only Holt’s remarkable music but also the idea, the image, which had inspired the composer.
Nigredo is a particular state in the medieval philosophy of Alchemy – the dream of turning base metal into gold. Nigredo is the point when metal is blackened and charred in the hope that it can be recast as something far more precious. On a human level, it is a descent to utter despair to discover deep self-knowledge from which one can then move on, all the stronger.
First performed by Richard Alston Dance Company at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre, The Place, London on 5 June 2007.