Artistic Director: Russell Maliphant
Associate Artist: Michael Hulls
Russell Maliphant Company was founded in 1996 and has sought to explore a diverse range of techniques including classical ballet, contact improvisation, yoga, capoeira and tai chi.
Maliphant’s language is one of form and dynamics – elegant, articulate and resonant. The company’s work is characterised by a unique approach to flow and energy and a concern with the relationship between movement, light and music.
2004 marked the tenth anniversary of collaboration between Maliphant and pioneering lighting designer Michael Hulls and this was celebrated with the creation of the work Transmission, which toured internationally throughout 2005 and 2006. In autumn 2007 the company featured in the ground breaking production Cast No Shadow created by Russell Maliphant in collaboration with visual artist/film-maker Isaac Julien.
The company has toured extensively both nationally and internationally, and was the first western dance company to visit Uzbekistan. In 2007 it completed a week long run at the celebrated Harvey Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Russell Maliphant Company has received a number of awards including a TimeOut Live Award for Outstanding Collaboration, for the work Sheer, and in 2003 a South Bank Show Award for One Part II, Two Times Three and Choice.
In 2009, the Company made its debut at Dansens Hus, Stockholm and Theatre National des Chaillot, Paris with a programme featuring Flux, Small Boats (from Cast No Shadow) and Push. The Company also featured in Two : Four : Ten, a new programme celebrating the work of Maliphant and Michael Hulls at the London Coliseum, which also featured guest artists from The Royal Ballet and English National Ballet.
In 2009, Russell began the creation of a new trio for the Company, AfterLight, inspired by Nijinsky and the Ballet Russes, which will form part of a new programme to be toured nationally and internationally from Autumn 2010. This will be complemented by Choice, originally created in 2003 and revived and re-worked for the CobosMika Company in 2009. CobosMika will guest with the Russell Maliphant Company through 2010/2011 performing this work.