January is a month traditionally celebrated with post-Christmas frugality, attempts to get both waistlines and bank balances back in the right shape, and soon-forgotten promises to better oneself over the coming year. For dance fans in London, it's also a month filled with new performances at The Place Robin Howard Theatre, thanks to the annual winter dance festival that is Resolution! — 27 nights of triple bills featuring a total of 81 companies. This year's is the 24th edition of a showcase that has launched the careers of such household names as Wayne McGregor, Hofesh Shechter and Russell Maliphant, as well as dozens of smaller-scale artists still working in performance.
Resolution! 2013 kicks off on 8 January with works by Jacob Hobbs, Wolfgang and Cody Choi. Choi, whose piece The Fear Factor examines our instinctive responses to threat in the form of zombies, is one of this year's celebrity performers — a former dancer with Matthew Bourne and Arthur Pita, he's now relaunching a choreographic career in the UK. Two members of Random Dance, Paolo Mangiola and Benjamin Ord, will present Take me home and make me like that on Fri 18 Jan, and Karima El Amrani of Hofesh Shechter Company offers We’re made of stories. Secrets are safe in stories on Tue 22 Jan, a work made jointly with dancer Victoria Hoyland.
"What makes Resolution! one of the best loved seasons for short new dance is the sheer quantity and diversity of the pieces included," says Press Manager Marta Bogna. Previous Resolutions! have included meditations on literary works, thrilling table-flinging, loud bursts of Oasis and utterly baffling digital projections.
Audiences new to the festival should be aware that all of the works and many of the choreographers are new and untested — a trip to The Place in January is a real lucky-dip, with a range of quality on offer in both ideas and execution. Go along with an open mind, however, and you might just come across one of the gems that every year's festival manages to throw up.
Resolution! 2013 is at The Place, Robin Howard Theatre, WC1H 9PY from Tuesday 8 January to Friday 15 February. Tickets £14 (£11 concs) — book on 020 7121 1100 or at www.theplace.org.uk
