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Contemporary dance. Richard Alston, Artistic Director of The Place, the UK's leading centre for contemporary dance, is internationally recognised as one of the most influential and inspiring choreographers in British dance. 2008 marks Richard Alston's 60th birthday and also the 40th anniversary of his first piece of choreography. To celebrate both occasions, Richard Alston Dance Company is presenting a special programme which includes both new choreography, Blow Over, and a revival of one of Alston's most acclaimed early works for the company, Movements from Petrushka, along with a third work from rising young company choreographer, Martin Lawrance. Alston made Movements from Petrushka in 1994, the year RADC was founded. It revolves around the figure of Petrushka, and is danced to Stravinsky's own solo piano arrangement of his full score - played live onstage by the remarkable young pianist Jason Ridgway. A virtuosic tour de force, visceral and intense, Movements from Petrushka was hailed as a triumph by critics and audiences. BLOW OVER, which Alston is yet to begin creating, has been co-commissioned by Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Dance Umbrella Festival in London. It will be set to the racing pace of American composer Philip Glass's Songs from Liquid Days.