1948–2026

We are deeply saddened by the death of Sir Richard Alston CBE, who died on 7 September 2026, aged 77.

One of the most significant choreographers and artistic leaders in Rambert’s history, Richard was Resident Choreographer from 1980 to 1986 and Artistic Director from 1986 to 1992. His relationship with Rambert spanned more than four decades and his influence on the company and on British contemporary dance was profound.

Born in Stoughton, Sussex, in 1948, Richard initially studied fine art and theatre design at Croydon College of Art. His growing fascination with dance led him to the London School of Contemporary Dance in 1968, where he choreographed his first piece, Transit. It was there that he met Dame Siobhan Davies with whom he would share a close creative partnership throughout his career. He would later return to The Place to create work for London Contemporary Dance Theatre (LCDT) under the direction of Sir Robert Cohan CBE. 

In 1972 he formed Strider, the UK’s first independent dance company, later travelling to New York to study at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio. During his time in the US, he would discover the work of Trisha Brown, another choreographer who, along with Cunningham would have a profound impact on his work going forward. 

Richard admired Cunningham enormously, but went on to forge a choreographic voice that was unmistakably his own. At its heart was music. In an oral history interview recorded for the Rambert Archive in 2024, Richard recalled how, as a child, he came to realise that his love of music was inseparable from an instinctive response to the movement within it. That connection between music and movement would shape his choreography throughout his life.

On his return from America, Richard worked throughout the UK and Europe as an independent choreographer and teacher. His relationship with Rambert began in 1980, after Christopher Bruce saw his work at Riverside Studios and Richard was invited to create a dance for Rambert.

That work was Bell High. Richard found himself immediately inspired by the company’s dancers, among them the young Michael Clark, and what began as a commission quickly developed into one of the defining artistic relationships of his life. He was appointed Resident Choreographer later that year and also performed with the company in 1980. 

Over the following twelve years, Richard helped shape a decisive period in Rambert’s artistic development. He became Artistic Director in 1986 and, during his time with the company, created 25 works for Rambert. In August 1987, he oversaw the change of name from Ballet Rambert to Rambert Dance Company, a symbolic moment in the continuing evolution of a company that had repeatedly reinvented itself since Marie Rambert first laid its foundations.  

Richard created an extraordinary body of work for Rambert. It included Bell High, Landscape, Rainbow Ripples, Night Music, The Rite of Spring: Pictures of Pagan Russia, Apollo Distraught, Chicago Brass, Voices and Light Footsteps, Wildlife, Mythologies, Dangerous Liaisons, Zansa, Pulcinella, Strong Language, Rhapsody in Blue, Hymnos, Cinema, Pulau Dewata, Dealing with Shadows, Roughcut and Cat’s Eye. He also brought Soda Lake and Dutiful Ducks, originally created as solos for Michael Clark, into the Rambert repertoire.

His years at Rambert were marked not only by his own choreography, but by his commitment to the idea of a repertory company. His artistic leadership brought together new work and major voices in contemporary dance while retaining a profound interest in the history from which Rambert had grown.

That relationship with the past mattered deeply to Richard. He knew and talked with artists who had belonged to earlier generations of the company, including one of his personal heroes, Frederick Ashton. He would invite former Rambert dancers to come into the studios and watch rehearsals of historic works. 

When he returned to Rambert in November 2024 to record an interview for our Centenary Oral History Project, he described that connection beautifully. He said he felt “linked to the past, not by being nostalgic, not by trying to recreate it, but through an understanding of the history that had made the company what it was”. Richard understood perfectly well that Rambert’s story was a history of change.

He spoke with enormous admiration for Marie Rambert and the courage she had shown in allowing the company she founded to evolve beyond her own artistic vision. For Richard, honouring the spirit of Rambert did not mean preserving a particular style. It meant retaining the curiosity, conviction and artistic integrity that had allowed the company continually to find new forms. 

Several works from Richard’s Rambert years remained especially close to him. He remembered Rainbow Ripples, created with Michael Clark and dancers he particularly enjoyed working with, for the sense of pleasure it gave both performers and audiences. Wildlife held an even more personal place in his memory. Reflecting on it years later, he said simply, “Wildlife was a very special piece to me. It really was.”

Strong Language became an unexpected popular success and an important work in Richard’s development as a choreographer. Roughcut, created to the music of Steve Reich, became another landmark. In January 1990, while Rambert was touring in France, the company was asked at short notice to replace the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Palais Garnier in Paris. Richard remembered the Rambert dancers taking to its vast stage in Roughcut and simply “flying”.

His description of his own choreography in that final Rambert interview was characteristically direct. “It’s about movement. It’s about never stopping. It’s about flowing.”

Movement, rather than a succession of fixed positions, was central to the way Richard thought about dance. His extraordinary musicality and his ability to allow choreography and music to exist together without one simply illustrating the other, became hallmarks of a body of work created over more than five decades. 

After leaving Rambert in 1992, Richard continued to play a defining role in British contemporary dance. In 1994 he became Artistic Director of The Place and founded Richard Alston Dance Company, which became its resident company after the closure of LCDT. He led The Place until 2018 and created more than 50 works for Richard Alston Dance Company throughout its 25 year history. 

His work continued to be performed widely across the UK and internationally. He also created and restaged works for companies including The Royal Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Ballet Black, Phoenix Dance Theatre, New York Theatre Ballet and Miami City Ballet. 

His contribution to dance was recognised throughout his career. He was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995, appointed CBE in 2001 and received the De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement at the National Dance Awards in 2008. In 2019 he was knighted for services to dance.

But his connection to Rambert never disappeared.

Richard returned to the company in 2001 to create Unrest as part of Rambert’s 75th anniversary celebrations and remained an important part of the extended Rambert family and its living history.

It is particularly poignant that, as Rambert approached its centenary, Richard chose to sit down with us once more and tell the story of his time here. Looking back in 2024, he remembered being “very happy” as Resident Choreographer and having “learned a lot” as Artistic Director. He reflected on his twelve years with Rambert as one chapter within something much larger, speaking with wonder about how the company was approaching one hundred years after Marie Rambert had believed that it might not survive her. 

“We are all part of history,” Richard told us. “And that’s that.”

As Rambert celebrates its centenary, Richard stands among the defining artists of its hundred year history, his vision leaving an indelible mark on the company and the art form it helped shape. 

He helped shape a generation of Rambert dancers, created works that became part of the vocabulary of British contemporary dance and led the company through an important period of artistic transformation. At the same time, he understood something fundamental about Rambert itself. Its history mattered not because it should be recreated, but because every generation of artists adds something to it before passing it on.

Richard did exactly that.

Everyone at Rambert sends their heartfelt condolences to Richard’s family, friends, colleagues and to the generations of dancers, choreographers, musicians and artists who worked alongside him.

We remember Richard with enormous affection and gratitude, and celebrate an artist of exceptional creativity and musicality whose work changed Rambert and British dance.

His movement never stood still. Neither will the influence he leaves behind.

The Richard Alston Foundation is inviting those who knew, worked with or were inspired by Richard to share their memories and reflections. Tributes can be submitted here

The Place is also gathering tributes to Richard and his work from across the dance community. If you would like to share a memory or reflection, you can contribute here.