Essence

A dance opera in two acts, Essence had its world premiere at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House 7 -10 March 2005. This is a co-production with ROH2 and marks the company's first full creative collaboration since becoming an Associate Company of the Royal Opera House. Rooted in Walker Dance Park Music's growing reputation for
artistic innovation and inspired by the work of Irish poet an mystic W B Yeats, Essence is the company's most adventurous synthesis of dance and music to date.

Essence explores how we disguise and counterfeit ourselves to present a false self to the world, and how this inevitably creates chaos. Walker Dance Park Music's continuing development sees the marriage of music and movement further enhanced by plain song vocals and features stage design that delineates Yeats' ideas on the world of the self and its 'mask' Essence exudes an ethereal mood and contemplative atmosphere, as bodies alternate between a separated and intertwined physicality, co-existing in their own worlds. Essence promises to further enhance the company's reputation for creating physically and emotionally rewarding work with dancers and musicians of the highest standard.