Letter: Dancing master

Sir: As choreographers, composers, and artists or designers, we wish to pay tribute to Richard Alston's creative vision during his period as resident choreographer for the Rambert Dance Company from 1980 and artistic director of the company from 1986 to December 1992.

During these 12 years, Richard Alston has made a great contribution to the development of dance in this country, most notably in the many collaborative ventures that he encouraged at Rambert between artists, composers and choreographers, the undersigned of this letter, and through his own brilliant example.

Although Richard Alston's choreography is now internationally esteemed, we hope also that in the future many opportunities will continue to be provided for his work to be enjoyed in Britain.

Yours sincerely,

SIOBHAN DAVIES, MARK BALDWIN, LAURIE BOOTH, TRISHA BROWN, LUCINDA CHILDS, MICHAEL CLARK, MERCE CUNNINGHAM, PAUL OLD, MARY EVELYN, DAVID GORDON, ASHLEY PAGE, IAN SPINK, VALDA SETTERFIELD, GUIDO SEVEREIN; CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN, HARRISON BIRTWISTLE, GAVIN BRYARS, PETER MAXWELL DAVIES, ORLANDO GOUGH, JOHN MARC- GOWANS, OLIVER KNUSSEN, HANS PETER KUHN, COLIN MATTHEWS, NICHOLAS MAW, NIGEL OSBORNE, GLYN PERRIN, STEVE REICH, DAVID SAWER, SIMON WATERS, KEVIN VOLANS; JENNIFER BARTLETT, DAVID BUCKLAND, NIGEL HALL, KATHARINE HAMNETT, TIM HARLEY, HOWARD HODGKIN, JOHN HOYLAND, JOHN HUBBARD, PAUL HUXLEY, ALLEN JONES, MARK LANCASTER, ANTONY McDONALD, BRUCE MacLEAN, PETER MUMFORD, JACK SMITH, RICHARD SMITH, KATE WHITEFORD

London, N1

29 January