Russell Maliphant was born in Canada in 1961 and grew up in Cheltenham, training at the Royal Ballet School. As a performer he worked with DV8 Physical Theatre, Michael Clark Company and others, but he’s better known as a choreographer. He formed his eponymous company in 1996 and went on to win many awards, including an Olivier for his 2003 show Broken Fall and another for 2005’s Push, with Sylvie Guillem. Maliphant is an associate artist at Sadler’s Wells. From 11 to 14 March, he presents three of his solo works at Sadler’s Wells East in the triple bill Landscapes.
Art
Lee Miller at Tate Britain
Miller did really beautiful, poetic, exploratory pieces, from fashion to surrealism to war photography. There’s a brutal humanity to her sculptural and erotic explorations with Man Ray, and her approach to war photography was very poetic. The printing was beautiful too – they’re art; they’re not from Snappy Snaps. There is a human interaction with the process that makes every print unique and it reminds you how special photography can be. And as it was at Tate Britain, I had the chance to walk past the Henry Moores and Francis Bacons, which I always find inspiring.
Dance
Pina Bausch: Sweet Mambo at Sadler’s Wells, London
I’ve been a fan of Pina Bausch’s work for decades and I’ve seen pretty much everything she’s brought to the UK. This piece [staged at Sadler’s Wells last month] was poignant because it was created in the final years of her life, with dancers she’d worked with for a long time. She’d chosen them for their personalities, their movement, their embodiment; and they’re incredibly watchable. Pina Bausch sets are usually special, and this one had beautiful white drapes being blown by a fan which the dancers interacted with and disappeared into. It was a beautiful experience.
Nonfiction
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
This is a wonderful book about things we don’t usually see or think about: the webs of mycelium that are connecting trees and passing messages from one to another. I like thinking about things that we don’t imagine as connecting. I work a lot with fascia, linking different parts of your body – you know, your neck’s a little off, and it might be relieved by working on the foot or the hip – and it’s somewhat like mycelia. Sheldrake explores fungal networks and he creates a fantastic image of them in the book.
Album
Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave does such great work, and anything new by him – this is his latest album, from 2024 – is always intriguing. He creates poetic images and makes reference to spirituality and religion but not in a dogmatic way. He shows the brutality of life, which he’s certainly experienced himself, but he maintains a respect and dignity while exploring it. There’s one track on the album, Long Dark Night, inspired by a 16th-century poem by a Spanish mystic, which does that in quite a special way.
Podcast
The Blindboy Podcast
I love how Blindboy makes connections between things – on the surface, you’d think there’s no way they could be connected, and yet he really convinces you that they are. It doesn’t matter what he’s talking about – it could be Irish history, or Margaret Thatcher, or starling poo – he’ll make a connection. One standout episode is called What Pulling Our Pants Around Our Ankles Can Tell Us About Structuralist Theory and Oral Storytelling; that’s a special one. He takes you out of the box of how you regularly see things. I could listen to him endlessly.
Bar
Yellowhammer, London NW10
This is a glorious little bar that’s more or less next door to my studio in North Acton. It’s not so known, and there’s a really nice, calm atmosphere in there. It’s located inside a distillery called Maison Miles, where they distil whisky, vodka, rum and other spirits. You have all the demijohns and glass vats and barrels – it has a Frankenstein’s laboratory feel to it. They make a great cocktail at the bar. It’s a nice place to hang out on a Friday evening after a week’s work.
Photograph by David M. Benett/Getty Images for Sky