Michael Nyman, one of the UK’s most celebrated composers, is renowned for his distinctly characterful minimalist style. Since the 1960s, Nyman has carved his unique and influential niche in contemporary classical music, composing across a wide variety of genres including opera, chamber and concert pieces, film music, as well as works for his own group, The Michael Nyman Band.  

Nyman’s broad compositional spectrum inspires choreographers in manifold projects for dance and ballet, where his music comes alive and can be reflected onstage. The innate rhythmic nature of his musical language is a delight for any choreographer, and his dynamic music naturally provides an exciting framework for movement. From purpose written music for dance, to other works being adopted by choreographers, Nyman has shaped some of the most innovative and memorable dance productions throughout the course of his career.  

Discover some of Nyman’s finest works for dance and ballet below.  

 

 

Exit No Exit (2005)

Exit no Exit began life as “Beckham Crosses, Nyman Scores”, a ‘homage’ to the England football team as part of an extended documentary broadcast on BBC Radio 3 to celebrate the end of the World Cup finals in Japan/Korea in 2002. Nyman decided to take extracts from John Motson’s commentary to the England v Argentina match and sample, loop and ‘instrumentalise’ them in the manner of Steve Reich’s Different Trains: translating the loops repeating rhythmic and melodic patterns played without variation. 

Rewritten for the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company in 2006, John Motson’s voice is now replaced with a bass clarinet which not only imitates the commentator’s highly idiosyncratic speech patterns, but also takes off from these with a concertante part of some virtuosity. A completely new, multi-section closing 10 minutes sequence was written specially for Exit no Exit, premiered on 7 February 2006 at Brighton’s Gardner Arts Centre. 

 

 

Miniatures / Configurations / String Quartet No.2 (1989)

String Quartet No.2 was commissioned by Shobana Jeyasingh, having heard of Nyman’s interest in South Indian dance, as a solo dance work: Miniatures. It was written for the Balanescu Quartet, in part due to the simple translation of the different rhythmic functions ascribed to each of the instruments in the Indian ensemble which traditionally accompanies Bharata Natyam to stringed instruments.  

It was first performed on September 15 1988 at the Palace Theatre, London. A three-dancer version, under the title Configurations was first performed the following year. A four-dancer version of Configurations was first performed on May 2 1992. 

 

 

 

Flicker (2004)

Flicker was commissioned by Shobana Jeyasingh for the second of her and Nyman’s dance collaborations in 2005. Following their first, Miniatures, written wonderfully for string quartet, Shobana insisted on ‘stretching’ Nyman with Flicker by suggesting an electronic score which was brilliantly and indispensably realised by Jurgen Simpson. In the dance work a live electric guitar is combined with the electronics, while for the concert version materials have been assembled related to the written and recorded versions of his 1-100 (1976) in a free association with the electronic track. 

 

 

MGV  (Musique à Grande Vitesse) (1993)

This work, entitled MGV : (Musique à Grande Vitesse) was written by Nyman for large orchestra in 1993. This work conveys the movement of a train (The TGV) making its journey through France. The Royal Ballet performed the choreography set to this work in 2006. For the purposes of the Ballet, the performance was renamed to DVG (Danse à grande Vitesse).  

 

Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and designer Jean-Marc Puissant discuss the creation of the ballet DGV in the below video.

 

 

Strange Attractors (1999)

Commissioned by the Stephen Petronion Dance Company, performed in June and December 2001 by Stephen Petronio Dance Company. Strange Attractors was later reconstructed by Gino Grenek for Petronio’s 2014/15 season.  

 

Image from Stephen Petronio and Anish Kapoor collaboration, Strange Attractors (2000).

 

 

Touch the Earth (1987)  

An unreleased piece written for the Rosemary Butcher Dance Company. Scored for two soprano voices, violin, and viola, Touch the Earth was inspired by a passage in Goethe's memoirs in which he describes the antiphonal call-and-response singing of the Venetian gondoliers as moving him to tears. Continuing the theme of Venice, Nyman appropriates a chord progression from a Monteverdi madrigral to form the piece around, adding modern dissonant vocal melodies over the archaic harmonic structure. 'Touch the Earth' is one of several Nyman pieces which exploits Sarah Leonard's remarkable upper register - other examples include 'Images Were Introduced', 'Memorial', 'L'Escargot', and 'L'Orgie Parisienne'. 

The work was the second collaboration with composer Michael Nyman and the last collaboration with Dieter Pietsch. Premiered in the Whitechapel Gallery then under the curation of Nicholas Serota (who was later to become the director of the Tate Britain and Tate Modern), it was from the first performance a huge success with both audiences and critics subsequently touring Art Galleries throughout the U.K. Disappointingly it was poorly interpreted by BBC television in a Dance Makers film, failing to capture its special ethereal quality. The opportunity of engaging a wider audience for the work was thus lost. 

 

 

Explore Nyman's oeuvre for inspiring music for future dance projects. Michael Nyman’s music will always be a strong choice on which choreographies will fly!

 

 

Discover more of Nyman's work, from the dancefloor to the concert hall and beyond in our selected works brochure.