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Your support makes all the difference.When the Phoenix Dance Company performed in London last week, critics unanimously voiced their admiration for the company, yet this admiration was often followed by a 'but'. This wasn't the Phoenix of old; was Phoenix dancing the right material? And why so much sex?
'This year, our programme does put certain issues right up in people's faces and I knew from the beginning that people would love it or hate it, and they have done.
'But that's not bad - either way people are going to go away thinking about it. That's what is important, to provoke a reaction on the themes the programme deals with, themes of race, of violence and of sex, issues that are in everybody's lives today.
'Our work changes every season and the types of work we do are very different. But everybody has their views on what Phoenix should be doing. And with what's been going on with Rambert and London Contemporary recently, Phoenix is becoming a standard-bearer for contemporary dance. So as the company continues, more people are going to want to see Phoenix do different things. People take ownership of Phoenix - which is wonderful - but it's also an enormous pressure on the company.
'There is no doubt that certain dance companies are suited to a certain type of material, but also companies grow and change. Phoenix was suited to a certain type of dance five years ago, but to a different type of dance today.
'It is important not to limit the artistry of the dancers. This particular programme is very athletic, but next year's will be very different, it will allow further growth and give new opportunities to the company.
'A dancer is an artist and an instrument and that artist will continue to develop that instrument and the artistry of the instrument. It's unlike a violin or a drum, where there are a certain amount of sounds that you can get out of it - a body changes. The instrument changes as the mood changes, as the dancer grows and develops. Phoenix, the dancers within it and its vision will therefore move and change and grow.'
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