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PRESS RELEASE

UP FROM THE WASTE by Antonia Franceschi
X-rated ballet, rap and music combine with a savage yet poetic text
– all inspired by the energy of New York

in association with The National Theatre Studio & Art of Regeneration

Dramaturg: Martin Sherman; Director: Cecil O’Neal;
Original Music: Gary Yershon; Lighting: Mark Jonathan

with Antonia Franceschi, Clare Holman, David Justin, Alexandre Proia and Will
Smith

Albany STAGE, Deptford, London SE8 4AG
Tuesday, December 3 – Saturday December 7 at 8pm;
Sunday, December 8 at 5pm

Press Night: Wednesday, December 4 at 8pm

Up From the Waste is the compelling story of one young woman’s survival –
and the power of dance to transform a life.

Former New York City Ballet dancer - who also featured in the movie Fame -
Antonia Franceschi is one of the hottest properties in dance, and she’s
joined forces with the National Theatre Studio & AOR to present a white hot
show that combines X-rated ballet, rap and original music. Playwright Martin
Sherman has lent a critical eye as Dramaturg

Up from the Waste tells the story of an extraordinary life – a life that
begins on the streets of Manhattan running with teen gangs, goes to Hollywood
with Travolta via the real life "Fame’ school, and culminates with acceptance
into one of the World’s most dynamic ballet companies.

The show has six performances at the newly-restored Albany in Deptford
(December 3 –8) as part of the National Theatre’s imaginative Art of
Regeneration – a unique partnership between artists and young people in south
London.
Up from the Waste will tour nationally in the Spring of 2003.

Up From the Waste, which has been developed in association with the National
Theatre Studio & AOR, is written and choreographed by Antonia Franceschi.
She’s brought together a crack team from both sides of the Atlantic to
translate her extraordinary vision into theatrical reality . She’s asked
three virtuosic American male dancers - Alexandre Proia (ex NYCB) , Will
Smith (Dance Theatre of Harlem) and David Justin (ex BRB) - and a classical
actress – Clare Holman - to join her on stage.

Playwright Martin Sherman (author of Bent) has lent a critical eye as
Dramaturg. Award-winning director/producer Cecil O’Neal directs, Gary Yershon
, one of the UK’s busiest theatre composers, is responsible for the original
score and lighting is by Mark Jonathan, whose lighting designs for ballet,
drama, musicals and opera have been seen world wide.

Box Office information: 0208 692 4446
Tickets: £10 (concessions: £5)

Biographies:
ANTONIA FRANCESCHI (writer/choreographer/performer) was for many years a
leading dancer with New York City Ballet. She made her professional debut on
Broadway with Makarova and Company and performed alongside Anthony Dowell in
Maurice Bejart’s pas de deux Bach Sonata. Following this she was invited by
George Balanchine to join New York City Ballet, where she had roles created
for her by Balanchine, Robbins, Martins, Bonnefous, Lar Lubovitch, Dean, and
LaFosse, as well as performing most of the Balanchine repertoire. After NYCB
Antonia featured in the musicals The Red Shoes and as Bonnie Jean in Brigadoon
. As an actress Franceschi starred in the major motion picture Fame and
appeared in Grease.

Since moving to London in 1995, Franceschi has performed works made for her
by choreographers Mark Baldwin,Wayne McGregor, Michael Clark, Matthew Hart,
Arlene Phillips, and Karole Armitage. When Franceschi returned to New York to
perform with O’Day Dance, her "sunlit clarity made her return to the New York
dance scene a welcome one" (New York Times).

Franceschi has produced two evenings of New York Ballet Stars in London’s
Queen Elizabeth Hall (1998) and The Royal Festival Hall (1999) . Her films
for television include Pointe Blank for Channel 4, Ecco and Live and Kicking
for the BBC. She is featured in the Merchant Ivory film The Golden Bowl .
Antonia performed The Vagina Monologues at The New Ambassadors Theatre.

Antonia is the 1999 Time Out Award winner for "Outstanding Achievement in
Dance".
An earlier version of Antonia’s work in progress Up From The Waste was
performed and comissioned by The Gantry, Southampton, supported by The
London Arts Board and The Royal National Theatre Studio.

<small>[ 11-23-2002, 08:31: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

For Antonia Franceschi, dance was an escape from a traumatic childhood
By Jenny Gilbert for The Independent

Street gangs, subway violence, parental neglect, rape. Most kids who manage to survive such an urban assault course would be happy to bury the memory in adulthood. Not so Antonia Franceschi – ex-New York City Ballet dancer, who as a teenager featured in the movies Grease and Fame, faking a birth certificate so she could go to Hollywood at 16. Now 40, she long ago did all the therapy and laid the ghosts to rest. But still, clearly, things remain to be said. Re-settled in London, and much in demand as a freelance dancer/choreographer with a lean, lightning-streak technique, she has turned her experiences of growing up in 1970s Manhattan into theatre.

Developed with the National Theatre Studio, and under the advisory eye of Bent playwright Martin Sherman, Up From the Waste combines rap, original music by Gary Yershon, an unflinching poetic text delivered by the actress Clare Holman, and ballet performed by Franceschi and three extraordinary-looking American men. The idea for the piece, she says, first came to her in the shower, when a voice in her head asked: "What was it like for you in Manhattan. What was it like growing up?"

click for more

Up From the Waste
By Judith Mackrell for The Guardian


There is no doubt that Antonia Franceschi walked on a wilder side than most dancers. Raised by a damaged, neglectful mother in tough New York, she spent her childhood fighting with gangs and flirting with drugs. This tiny blonde might have been destined for disaster, except that she went to ballet class and discovered a talent for flight. For years she kept her dancing secret, fearing the punishment meted out to deserters. But a place at the High School of Performing Arts launched her into the movies Grease and Fame and a job with New York City Ballet.

It is a powerful story, but the problem with Franceschi's telling of it is that it sounds only partly credible. Up From the Waste is a collage of Franceschi's narrative, delivered by herself and actors Clare Holman and Ian Knowles, plus a couple of film interludes and dance sections for Franceschi and three male partners.

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Review in the Observer (please scroll down article).

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Review from The Independent.

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