Projects We’re Supporting

The Difference Engine

Composer Dario Palermo, whose work combines traditional instrumentation with new technologies, collaborates with 2011 Place Prize-winning choreographer Ben Duke, on The Difference Engine, inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 film La Jetée. The piece, commissioned by Dance Umbrella and premiered as part of the dance festival this autumn (12-22 October, Gate Theatre) explores time travel, the power of the imagination and the relationship between the physical body and virtual reality. Palermo’s score will be recorded by the Arditti Quartet and mezzo-soprano Catherine Carter and released on CD in 2012. Read more and book

Julian Phillips/Mickael Marso Riviere/Company Decalage/Aurora Orchestra

The Aurora Orchestra combines with choreographer Mickael Marso Riviere, Company Decalage and composer Julian Philips in a new work that juxtaposes ‘breaking’ and orchestral music.  The piece will be premiered in 2012 as part of Aurora’s groundbreaking New Moves series at London’s LSO St Lukes, and touring the UK.

Kenneth Hesketh/Sharon Watson/Phoenix Dance/Psappha

Forms entangled, shapes collided, a collaboration between leading contemporary music ensemble Psappha, composer Kenneth Hesketh and choreographer Sharon Watson, Artistic Director of Phoenix Dance Theatre takes as its inspiration Greek philosophy and the theory of atomism – the idea that the world consists of two fundamental principals; atoms and void.  The piece will tour nationally in 2013.

Bob Lockyer, adviser to The RPS Drummond Fund comments:

“We were all very excited by the ideas in these winning collaborations.  Also very pleased to think that these works, both the music and the dance, will be premiered and seen all over the UK in the coming years.  In the difficult times ahead I’m pleased that the Drummond Fund can help dance companies commission new music for dance and as a result challenge their audiences and the critics alike.  John Drummond would have approved of that.”