Search: 5-10 - Edinburgh Festival Guide

After receiving a 2010 Herald Angel Award for Songs of Ascension, US composer, singer, filmmaker and theatre artist Meredith Monk returns to the Festival with her latest music-theatre work, On Behalf of Nature.
A poetic meditation on the environment, On Behalf of Nature evokes the Buddhist notion of different realm categories, uniting heaven and earth by way of human beings. Drawing further inspiration from writers who have sounded the alarm on the state of our global ecology, Monk and her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble create a space where human, natural and spiritual elements are woven into a delicate whole, illuminating the interconnection and interdependency of us all.
‘a rapturous new work… some of the finest music Monk has yet written.’ Los Angeles Times
Friday 16 & Saturday 17 August 8.00pmSunday 18 August 2.30pmRoyal Lyceum Theatre
Tickets£30 £24 £20 £16 £10
1 hour 15 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/meredithmonk
Supported by American Friends of the Edinburgh International Festival

A brilliant programme of modern masterworks from one of the hottest names in dance. Benjamin Millepied brings his new company to the UK for the first time, following his huge success as choreographer and star of Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning film Black Swan.
L.A. Dance Project is an artist collective founded by Millepied, composer Nico Muhly, art consultant Matthieu Humery, producer Charles Fabius and film producer Dimitri Chamblas. At the peak of his career, after starring with New York City Ballet, Millepied embarks on a new adventure.
‘The eclecticism is admirable. All three works look remarkably “now”. The dancers tackle their diverse challenges with skill.’ The New York Times
‘The biggest dancer to cross over into pop culture since Mikhail Baryshnikov.’ The New York Times
Quintett
William Forsythe Choreography (in collaboration with Dana Caspersen, Stephen Galloway, Jacopo Godani, Thomas McManus and Jone San Martin)Stephen Galloway Costume designerWilliam Forsythe Lighting designer
Forsythe’s seminal work, set to Gavin Bryars’s emotional and elegiac Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is a moving final love letter to his wife before she died.
Winterbranch
Merce Cunningham  ChoreographerLa Monte Young  Music (2 Sounds)Robert Rauschenberg  Décor and costume designerBeverly Emmons  Lighting designer (based on concepts by Robert Rauschenberg)Jennifer Goggans  Staging (assisted by Robert Swinston)
This dramatic work features costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and a score, 2 Sounds, by La Monte Young. Merce Cunningham talked about two ‘facts’ of dancing – the act of falling, and unless one stayson the ground, the subsequent act of rising. The dancers engage in a series of falls, in both slow and fast motion, eventually clustering together to fall and rise united as a cohesive group.
Moving Parts
Benjamin Millepied  ChoreographyNico Muhly  Music compositionChristopher Wool  Visual installationKate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte)  Costumer designersRoderick Murray  Lighting designer
A new work by the group’s founding choreographer.
Saturday 24 – Monday 26 August 7.30pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£30 £27 £22 £17 £12 £10
2 hours approximatelyeif.co.uk/ladance
Sponsored byBaillie Gifford Investment Managers
Supported byDunard Fund
With additional support from Embassy of the United States of America, London
Monday 26 AugustTouch Tour 6.15pm Audio Described 7.15pm
 
 

Moving through constellations of wood and Plexiglas pillars, reacting in sculptor Vera Röhm’s space Cesc Gelabert recreates Gerhard Bohner’s original concept highlighting elements of dance, visual artsand music while allowing them to remain autonomous.
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, interpreted by Keith Jarrett, provides the music for this reconstruction of Bohner’s solo Im (Goldenen) Schnitt_I, to which Gelabert brings his inimitable style and individuality as a dancer.
Monday 19 August 8.00pmMain Theatre Tickets £18 £15 £12 £10eif.co.uk/im-goldenen-schnitt

EmbersBy Samuel Beckett
Pan Pan Theatre
Performed in English
Gavin Quinn DirectorAndrew Clancy  SculptorAedin Cosgrove  Lighting designerJimmy Eadie  Sound designer
‘silence in the house, not a sound, only the fire, no flames now, embers. Embers.’
Henry sits on a beach, remembering and imagining stories and incidents from his life, tormented by his father’s suicide, his own disfunctional family history and his failure as a writer. Hallucinations and reality merge as he attempts to stoke the fire of his creativity.
First broadcast on radio in 1959, Embers takes us on a journey into the haphazard world of Henry’s imagination, a world of ever-shifting mental leaps, ruminations and ambiguities where creative storytelling and unfinished memories both real and unreal coalesce into one. Was Henry’s father washed out to sea while taking his evening swim, or did he commit suicide?
‘We never found your body, you know…’
Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 August 7.00pmSunday 25 August 2.00pmKing’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Tickets £20 £15 £10
50 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/embers
Supported byLéan Scully EIF FundCulture Ireland

Édouard Lock: World Premiere (2013) - Dance Odysseys
Performed by Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet presents a World Premiere from La La La Human Steps Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer Édouard Lock.
Lock is renowned for his extreme, incandescent style of dance and his precise technique. His boldly challenging style has always attracted international attention. His creations are an arresting fusion of speed, complex combinations of gestures and footwork, and bodies propelled through the air at astonishing angles. Past collaborations include projects with David Bowie, Frank Zappa and Bette Midler, and he has created work for the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the Dutch National Ballet and Paris Opéra Ballet.
Friday 16 August 8.00pmMain Theatre Tickets £18 £15 £12 £10eif.co.uk/edouardlock

Olga JegunovaLMN Scotland/UK The Latvian-born pianist plays Schubert, Mozart and Rachmaninov with music by composers from her homeland, Peteris Vasks and Rihards Dubra Tuesday 27 August 9.00pm Supported byIan Stoutzker Tickets £10 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/cafeconcerts

Trio NielsenLMN Denmark Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances and Piazzolla’s Nightclub 1960 along with folk melodies fromDenmark and Scotland performed by Kirstine Fritzen Uth (clarinet), Mads Madsen and Astrid Larsen(guitar) Friday 23 August 9.00pm Supported byIan Stoutzker Tickets £10 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/cafeconcerts

Zuzana Zaimlová and Veronica BöhmovaLMN Dresden/Germany A mixed programme by Dvorák and a selection of German composers for soprano and piano Wednesday 28 August 9.00pm Supported byIan Stoutzker Tickets £10 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/cafeconcerts

FlercussionLMN Scotland/UK The song and dance of Piazzolla’s South American tango music, a Shostakovich waltz and Debussy’s La belle au bois dormant performed by Jo Ashcroft (flute) with Calum Huggan (marimba and percussion) Thursday 29 August 9.00pm Supported byIan Stoutzker Tickets £10 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/cafeconcerts

Hannah StoneLMN Wales/UK The Royal harpist plays Bach, Dizi, Prokofiev and Salzedo. Wednesday 14 August 9.00pm Supported byIan Stoutzker Tickets £10 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/cafeconcerts