News

On 9 and 10 November, Clod Ensemble and Nu Civilisation Orchestra, featuring dancers from the Trinity Laban Dance Collective, present a new perspective on Charles Mingus’ iconic 1963 recording The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady. Part of the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival, this show will transform the Grade II-listed Shoreditch Town Hall into a vibrant cabaret venue to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the album. 

Mingus always envisioned dance accompanying his provocative masterpiece. Trinity Laban Dance Collective, comprised of students currently on the MA/MFA Dance Performance programme, are working with Clod Ensemble and Nu Civilisation Orchestra as they honour that vision and bring it to life for a new generation.

Collaboration is at the heart of Trinity Laban’s approach to artistic development. Programme leader Hilary Stainsby says: 

“This is a great opportunity for the TLDC students to develop their performance skills in collaboration with a fantastic creative team, working alongside professional dancers and practitioners. We are particularly committed to offering different performative experiences on this programme, and this project is wonderfully unique and interesting.”

At Shoreditch Town Hall, dancers including Valerie Ebuwa, Faye Stoeser and TLDC will fill the venue with movement and energy. The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady will see the dancers delivering both dense-knit choreography and passages of improvisation which dovetail with the band’s playing. The movement direction from Clod Ensemble’s Co-Artistic Director Suzy Willson will employ the same daring, bold approach that has characterised Clod Ensemble’s work since the company launched in 1995.

Nu Civilisation Orchestra will be led by the MOBO-nominated Peter Edwards and feature their Founder/Artistic Director and Trinity Laban Honorary Fellow Gary Crosby OBE on bass. The professional ensemble of the acclaimed talent development organisation Tomorrow’s Warriors, Nu Civilisation Orchestra has toured and performed extensively, including a BBC Proms performance in 2019, a UK tour in 2021 of What’s Going On a tribute to Marvin Gaye’s seminal masterpiece, and an acclaimed national tour of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira and Mingus albums in 2022.

In addition to Mingus’ work in full, the shows will also feature performances of new music from Peter Edwards, Clod Ensemble’s Artistic Director Paul Clark, and rising drummer/composer Romarna Campbell (current live drummer for Fever Ray).

This performance also gives audience members the chance to move along with the music in celebration of Mingus’ composition. With dancers, band and audience all sharing the floor, attendees have the opportunity to get up close to world class performers and lose themselves in dancing along with this rhythmically explosive work.  Wallflowers, hip-shakers, Mingus buffs, music-lovers of all stripes – all are welcome in this celebration of the sensuality and power of jazz.

Tickets for The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady at Shoreditch Town Hall

NOTE: limited availability for Thu 9 Nov, Fri 10 Nov SOLD OUT

The MA/MFA Dance Performance at Trinity Laban is designed to foster a supportive and dynamic environment within which students can challenge and explore their voice, agency and artistry as dance performers. Find out more about Trinity Laban Dance Collective, the MA/MFA Dance Performance and how we support dance artists to grow their careers: 

https://www.trinitylaban.ac.uk/study/dance/postgraduate-programmes

 

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is supported by

Postcode Society Trust

Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and the London Community Foundation

Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation

Hinrichsen Foundation

Arts Council England

 

Lead image photography by Manuel Vason

Lead image design by Miriam Waldbillig/Studio Frith