#darren thomas

[books0977]

Alessandra Ferri and Francesca Hayward in the I Now, I Then section of Woolf Works, Royal Ballet, June 2017. © Darren Thomas.

Ferri interprets Clarissa Dalloway’s yearnings, passions and self-doubt in the same manner as they’re expressed in Virginia Woolf’s novel. Intertwining the past with the present, the first act of Woolf Works is as close as a dance work can be in its interpretation Woolf’s literary style, known as a ‘stream of consciousness’ in which multiple thoughts run through the protagonists’ minds as the narrative clicks from one character to another.

[swanlake1998]

hee seo photographed performing as odile in swan lake by darren thomas

[dodotdot]

[books0977]

Lauren Cuthbertson in The Winter’s Tale, Royal Ballet, July 2017. © Darren Thomas.

The choreography, in turn, flicks from the purely classical line of Lauren Cuthbertson as Hermione, whose arabesques and multiple turns in arabesque seem effortless, to the angry retires positions of Watson as Leontes.

[books0977]

Natalia Osipova in the Becomings section of Woolf Works, Royal Ballet, June 2017. © Darren Thomas.

In Woolf Works second act, titled Becomings, Orlando’s narrative of time travelling and gender changing becomes a busy black and gold travelogue through space with fantastical laser lighting transforming the stage and auditorium into criss-crossed shafts of light including a rainbow moment.

[swanlake1998]

kohei iwamoto photographed performing in jiří kylián’s soldiers’ mass by darren thomas

[swanlake1998]

misty copeland photographed performing as odile in swan lake by darren thomas

[diana-andraste]

Songs of the Siren, Darren Thomas