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Dance lifted into the stratosphere of co-ordinated movement
THE RAMBERT Dance Company exploded onto Brighton's Theatre Royal stage last week with a four-part production that challenged the prejudices and inhibitions of England's least inhibited town.
'Strictly' it isn't. Rambert dancers are not put together like the rest of us – they appear to have no joints, only muscles and sinews. There's almost an asexuality to these perfectly honed bodies which perform movements rooted in classical ballet but lift the discipline into the stratosphere of co-ordinated movement.
Rambert's 2010 Comedy of Change tour is challenging, beautiful and lingers in the mind.
As always in any live production there are some performers who just take the eye and hold it – they don't move better or look prettier so perhaps it's something unmeasurable like the 'presence' of a triple-crown winning racehorse.
In this current Rambert production Pieter Symonds from New Zealand and Jonathan Goddard were riveting.
In the second piece, Don't Think About It, dancer Miguel Altunaga choreographed his all-male cast into a locker-room brawl of sexual games which drew astonished gasps from the audience. A dancer with his back to the audience performs a sex act on himself. Another breathes deeply and loudly into a stage mike, undressing himself as he does so.
A third extracts a pair of underpants from another and duets with them. The men all wear suits and the piece conjures up a world of mates, lads and comrades seeking release through movement. The sexual games border on the uncomfortable but the virtuosity of movement and high spirits of every dancer made it all right on the night.
For heavens sake, how can anyone dance in a suit? Dance, they can. I did note the atmosphere in the interval bar was very quiet.
A favourite piece was The Comedy of Change which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On The Origin of Species.
Dancers emerge from cocoons; they are wearing fitted bodysuits and look like lithe gingerbread men dipped in dark chocolate. There are no superlatives adequate enough to describe how beautifully they move.
Tread Softly is performed by Schubert's String Quartet in D Minor named Death and the Maiden. Each of the four movements has its own relentlessly repeated dance rhythm.
Opening the night's performance was the sublime Richard Alston soloing to the text sound piece Dutiful Ducks.
Rambert dancers seem to have pocket-sprung hips – their aerial work is part circus, part Paris Opera formal, part Olympic gymnastic.
Congratulations to the Theatre Royal for bringing this company to the coast. As always they were accompanied by live music performed by their own orchestra. The evening showed how something done exceptionally well needs no fussy set, elaborate costume or torrent of words.
The ballet is now on tour and your next chance to catch it close-ish to home will be at Sadlers Wells, London from May 25-29.
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 24 May 2012
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