Four black boys from a Leeds comprehensive started the Phoenix dance company to perform their kind of music and their kind of moves. Pure talent made them a howling success, but over the years Phoenix found itself torched by ideological fires: whether it should be all men, or all black, or street. Its choreography and dancing suffered, and the fire seemed to be dying out.
But then last year, in a brilliant move, it appointed the rebellious Venezuelan Javier De Frutos as director. A superb choreographer as well as maverick theatre man, he presents his first big programme next week, contrasting his own violently sexual-religious-mystical work with jazzier dancing by others. We'll hear luscious music - Mozart, Stravinsky, Japanese drums and Sonny Terry blues. Phoenix's next stop is the Venice Biennale - this is some rebirth. Ismene Brown
Sadler's Wells, June 1 - 2.
FIRST POSTED MAY 25, 2007
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