Ben Duke News

Launching on World Stroke Day on 29th October, new publication Recovering Hope is the result of a decade of working with stroke survivors in hospitals and in the months following their release.

At the height of the pandemic when vulnerable members of society were shielding, a community of the UK's most isolated and vulnerable people came together online to create an opera about love after stroke.

This autumn, the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) is going digital, with a series of online events that launches today with a brand new commission from Lost Dog, a season of filmed dance shows and Q&As, and a special digital taster of Scottish Dance Theatre's Antigone, Interrupted.

In a time of global isolation, a community of the UK's most isolated and vulnerable people are overcoming barriers to join together online to create an opera about love after stroke.

JULIET & ROMEO, LOST DOG's award-winning, witty, and slightly unnerving version of Shakespeare's teenage love story has been playing to sellout audiences all over the UK since February 2018.

Tickets are on public sale from Monday 10 February 2020 for new shows announced at Sadler's Wells across 2020, featuring five world premieres, 10 UK premieres, and six Sadler's Wells Productions and co-productions, as well as a host of new creative partnerships involving artists from all over the world.

Kicking off the start of a new decade and celebrating five years, the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) will tour a fresh selection of shows created by dance companies whose work has been enjoyed on both national and international stages and can now be seen in village halls and rural venues across the UK. The shows on offer have been selected by local promoters from 'menus' which enable them to choose the work that best suits their venue.

JULIET & ROMEO, LOST DOG's award-winning, witty, clever and slightly unnerving version of Shakespeare's teenage love story has been playing to capacity audiences all over the UK since its ten-night run at Battersea Arts Centre and five-night run at the Place in February 2018. This is a world in which Shakespeare's tragic teenagers survive, get married, have a child and are now in marriage guidance counsellinga??with the audience set in listening modea??

This autumn, the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) brings a mixed programme of new and returning dance works to rural locations across the UK. Local promoters are invited to select the show that best fits these unique venues by picking a dance work from a bespoke 'menu'. For autumn 2019, the RTDI menu features a visceral duet exploring love and relationships, virtuoso multi-performer juggling and a moving portrayal of what it's like to be d/Deaf in a world made for those who can hear. The RTDI provides people living in remote areas with the opportunity to see innovative, fresh and fierce contemporary dance on their own doorstep. Along with giving people who might otherwise not see professional dance the opportunity to do so, the scheme gives audiences the chance to see highly skilled dancers perform in intimate and often unorthodox settings. The initiative is a partnership between the National Rural Touring Forum, The Place, China Plate and Take Art.

Already awarded a Total Theatre & Jacksons Lane Award for Circus, and shortlisted for the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award, Nikki & JD have now also been presented with a Herald Angel Award for Knot. Attracting a huge amount of excitement at this year's Edinburgh Fringe, where it is part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019, Knot is an innovative debut show pushing the boundaries of circus and theatre to combine highly technical circus skills with touching personal stories.

The highly acclaimed Knot, a debut show from circus artists Nikki & JD, has been named as the winner of the Total Theatre & Jacksons Lane Award for Circus in addition to being shortlisted for the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. Part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2019, Knot is a finely crafted journey through the struggles of commitment, exploring the absurdity, mundanity and joy of a very modern affair.

Juliet and Romeo have been married for 25 years; they still love each other, it's just that sometimes they wish the other one were dead. First performed to wide-spread critical acclaim, including a Critics' Circle Award nomination for Solene Weinachter in the titular role, Juliet & Romeo is from Lost Dog, who previously came to the Fringe with the multi-award winning and Total Theatre Award nominated Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me).

As 2019 gets underway, the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) will tour a fresh selection of shows created by dance companies whose work has been enjoyed on both national and international stages and can now be seen in to village halls and rural venues across the UK. Shows are offered in the form of 'menus' so local promoters are able to select the work that best suits their venue. This year's menu will bring an eclectic mix of dance adaptations of classic novels, fairytales and Shakespeare, Northern adventures and Windrush stories to an ever-growing audience who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see them. The initiative is a partnership between the National Rural Touring Forum, The Place, China Plate and Take Art.

LOST DOG's 'searingly witty' (SeeingDance) 'Juliet & Romeo' toured the UK during 2017 to packed houses and critical acclaim. Broadly based on Shakespeare's deeply pessimistic teenage love story, this 'highly entertaining, extremely amusing and occasionally quite tender evening of theatre and dance' (Times) is performed by Lost Dog's Artistic Director Ben Duke and Solene Weinachter. This clever, funny production explores contemporary culture's celebration of youth and how it creates unrealistic expectations around love, sex and relationships.

​​​​​​​Now in its 9th year, Tipperary Dance Platform's International Festival has been positioning dance as a medium that is particularly suited to take a look into the turbulent matters of our time, including tradition, gender, identity, ageing, and continuity.

Tipperary Dance Platform's ninth edition is curated around the theme of literature and one of the standout events will be a performance by Lost Dog from the UK of Paradise Lost (Lies unopened beside me) which was conceived and directed and will be performed by Lost Dog's co founder, Ben Duke. It will be performed at Excel Arts Centre on Friday, October 12th at 8pm. This is a re-telling of the story of the beginning of everything inspired by Milton's “Paradise Lost,” told through words, music, and dance. The work premiered in 2015 and has since toured extensively. It was nominated for a 2016 Sky Academy Arts Award, won the 2017 Rural Touring Award and Ben also won the National Dance Critics Award for Outstanding Male Performance. Lost Dog was formed in 2004 by Ben and Raquel Meseguer to create work using text, movement and music in which dance is framed by stories and characters and Ben Dukes appearance in Tipperary promises to be a highlight of what is an exciting and adventurous week.

Lost Dog's new show Juliet and Romeo has swept across the UK with enormous success and is stopping off in Liverpool for one night only on Friday 9 November at the Capstone Theatre, as part of Leap Dance Festival 2018.

This autumn Jacksons Lane puts female artists at the forefront. In an industry still fraught with gender imbalance, this season is packed with bold, disruptive and feminist work by the world's most thrilling circus artists and theatre-makers. Three shows - Raven, Lola and Thunder Road - are exclusively written, directed and performed by women; every show but one has a female protagonist, and female directors and performers outnumber male equivalents.

The Royal Opera House today opens the doors to its transformed new home, following an extensive three-year construction project.

LOST DOG's "searingly witty" (SeeingDance) 'Juliet & Romeo' opened to packed houses and critical acclaim at a two week run at Battersea Arts Centre in London earlier this year. Broadly based on Shakespeare's deeply pessimistic teenage love story, this "highly entertaining, extremely amusing and occasionally quite tender evening of theatre and dance" (Times) is performed by Lost Dog's Artistic Director Ben Duke and Solene Weinachter. This clever, funny production explores contemporary culture's celebration of youth and how it creates unrealistic expectations around love, sex and relationships. The Guardian described the show as "smart, subversive and sexy".