Amici Dance’s Our Time Pays Tribute to Founder Wolfgang Stange
Our Time, a powerful new full-company production from Amici Dance Theatre Company will honour the life and legacy of its visionary founder and artistic director Wolfgang Stange, who passed away in December 2024. Produced by Turtle Key Arts, and marking Amici’s 45th anniversary, Our Time is a celebration of love, resilience and transformation, telling the story of two men whose enduring relationship spans five turbulent decades.
Conceived and begun by Wolfgang in the final year of his life, Our Time is a profoundly personal work that Amici has now completed in his honour. Inspired by his extraordinary relationship with his lifelong partner, the renowned Sri Lankan artist George Beven, the piece journeys through history – from the Cold War and the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the legalisation of same sex marriage and today’s conflicts marked by displacement and division. It explores how society’s views on love, identity and belonging continue to evolve.
Wolfgang was a pioneering figure in integrated dance theatre – a visionary who believed deeply in the creative potential of every individual, regardless of physical or emotional limitations. Our Time honours his vision, presenting Amici as a company that has always championed inclusion, collaboration and the boundless creative potential of everyone.
Our Time is directed by Michael Vale (Macbeth, RSC; Bent, National Theatre), choreographed by Amici’s Interim Artistic Director Elaine Thomas and has costume design by Tina Bicat (Critics’ Circle Award for Punchdrunk’s Faust) and lighting design by Phil Supple (Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Tower of London). It also features original live music by long-time Amici collaborator Nao Masuda (Music in Motion, London Jazz Festival, Analema Group).
This is real theatre, of which it can truthfully be said that it changes the way you see the world – The Observer As Wolfgang himself said: “Without hope we would be very lost indeed, I believe our only hope for salvation is acceptance and tolerance.” Infused with Amici’s signature blend of dance, theatre, circus and live music, Our Time is a production full of colour, heartbreak and celebration. As Amici Dance Theatre Company steps into its next chapter, Our Time is both a celebration of all that has come before and a promise to carry forward Wolfgang Stange’s extraordinary legacy of inclusion and artistic courage.
Main Image: Courtesy of Our Time
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