APRIL 2022

Internationally acclaimed Irish choreographer Marguerite Donlon created Strokes Through the Tail for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2005, finding inspiration in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 to make a work for six performers that combines virtuosic dancing with buckets of humour and a delightful hint of irreverence. “The dancers perform like black-and-white music notes moving in space,” she says, “at first clearly personifying the music, but as the piece develops these notes/dancers become six very strong and individual personalities.” Critics have raved about the piece’s “exquisite choreography performed to timeless music” (Chicago Sun-Times), with the Chicago Tribune remarking, “The whinnying Mozart depicted in Amadeus would have enjoyed a good horse-laugh at Donlon’s piece… Donlon is unafraid to go against the grain of the music, creating a counterpoint of delicious, never malicious, irony.”

Strokes Through the Tail has previously been performed on some of the world’s most iconic stages, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at Chicago Symphony Center with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

As a dancer, Donlon worked with dance legends including Rudolf Nureyev but she found her place working with and dancing the repertoire of the most influential contemporary choreographers, including William Forsythe and Meg Stuart. She has subsequently created a variety of dance works which have been critically acclaimed worldwide, thrilling an unusually broad audience.

Re-staging: Yamila Khodr
Costumes: Branimira Ivanova
Lighting: Ernst Schiessl
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Directed by: Luke Sweetman
Filmed by: Little Beast
Edited by: Peter Madden