Moving On (2006)

Duration: 8’
For piano, harp, violin, cello and percussion
Choreography: Jenna Lee
First performed at the Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford as part of the 2006 Ballet Central National tour.
Performed by Jo Woods (violin) and Patrick Jones (cello)

Exciting young choreographer, Jenna Lee, a soloist with English National Ballet, impressed when she choreographed a short work for the Central School of Ballet school show in the spring of 2005, and was asked to collaborate with composer, Philip Feeney, on a brand new work for the 2006 Ballet Central National Tour.

Moving On, choreographed for seven dancers, was the fruit of this collaboration, a work that sparkled with freshness, youth and vitality, mirroring the bright energy of choreographer and dancers alike.

The score was written just after Feeney had spent eight weeks in Ireland working with choreographer, Michael Keegan-Dolan, on the Fabulous Beast’s acclaimed production, The Bull. There is certainly more than a touch of Irish craic in the music for Moving On. Indeed the second section, a jagged multimetric harp solo, which Lee interprets as a central duet, was originally inspired by one of the early soundbites for The Bull.

But the Irish influence is clearly evident at the beginning as well, with its fabulous bouncey rhythms and its bubbly theme. The piano and harp exchange musical gestures like hot potatoes. Gradually the score becomes more textured, so that by the last section there is much more of an ensemble feel to the piece. 

Ballet Central was indebted to the wonderful recordings of Jo Woods (violin) and Patrick Jones, whose superlative cello playing is a characteristic of many of Feeney’s Ballet Central scores in the first decade of the millenium.