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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. Brisk Singing, Light Flooding into Darkened Rooms, Rumours, Visions. Brisk Singing celebrates the music of Jean Philippe Rameau, genius of the French Baroque. Alston has created an uplifting work for his whold company carried along by the urgent rhythms and lightness of spirit in Rameau's music, surelys some of the most joyous ever written for dance. Light Flooding into Darkened Rooms delves into the inner feelings, the private thoughts, of individuals in intimate encounter. The work is accompanied by sublime lute pieces from the 17th century master Denis Gaultier and Ars Brevis, a contemporary work for mandolin by the Japanese composer Jo Kondo. Rumours,Visions portrays the short but turbulent life of Arthur Rimbaud reflected in the fantastic imagery of his extraordinary poetry. Aged just sixteen, Rimbaud ran away to Paris to join the older poet Paul Verlaine and the intensity of their love affair fuelled wild visions and strange dreams. In Rumour, Visions, Alston takes images from the poet's life and work and blends them with Benjamin Britten's sensuous, ecstatic setting of Rimbau's Les Illuminations.