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Rooster and Other Works
Rambert
**** ASK anyone with the slightest interest in
dance to name a contemporary dance company and the chances are it will
be Rambert, and it is easy to see why. Its dancers have that level of skill and talent
to make even the most complex of moves seem so easy and natural that
performances flow like ripples in silk.
Their current tour, Rooster and Other Works,
opens with Frames choreographed by Alexander Whiteley, who
started his career at Birmingham Royal Ballet incidentally, and with
music by Icelandic composer Daniel Bjarnason. I must admit I am old school when it comes to
music, something to hum on the way home, which can hardly apply to
Bjarnason, but to be fair the music, with its mesmerising r Around the angular metal frames and hard edges of
the music, amid points of light, we see the softer angles and shapes
that can be created with the human form in a flowing dance of mechanical
and human forms. Frames could be seen as examples rather than a
story while Transfigured Night, the second piece, was a more
lyrical, narrative dance from Danish born Kim Brandstrup set to Arnold
Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.
With an ensemble of 16 dancers we see two
couples, Miguel Altunaga and Simone Damberg Würtz along with Dane Hurst
and Hannah Rudd. The dance starts with the premise of a
devastation disclosure, the sort that shocks and makes lovers question a
relationship. With that start we see first the fear of rejection, then a
dream sequence where all is forgiven and everyone lives happily ever
after, and then finally, the reality, a wary acceptance, qualified
forgiveness. The relationship has been wounded, and there might be
scars, but the lovers are still together. Chloe Lamford’s design with the ensemble in black
and only the four lead dancers in colour, including a stunning red
dress, added colour to the dance canvas while a single pillar gave scope
to some dramatic and imaginative lighting from Fabiana Piccioli. The final piece,
Rooster, choreographed by Christopher Bruce, was just . . . fun.
Eight Rolling Stones tracks from Little
Red Rooster through
Paint it Black
ending with
Sympathy for the Devil all opening with
Miguel Altunaga with a rooster walk, and we had another stunning red
dress in Ruby Tuesday. This is the first time Rooster has been in the
Rambert programme for some 13 years yet it still seems as fresh as ever
and so does the Stone’s music . . . or is that an age thing for those of
us not fading away. To 31-10-15 Roger Clarke
28-10-15
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hythmic
beat, and the 12 dancers were as one as we saw the contortions the human
body could manage around 70 interlocking metal bars creating moving
shapes like a huge, fluid Meccano set.