UNITED KINGDOM: BALLET RAMBERT CELEBRATES ITS 75TH ANNIVERARY WITH NEW BALLET DANCES

Record ID: 387969

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: BALLET RAMBERT CELEBRATES ITS 75TH ANNIVERARY WITH NEW BALLET DANCES
  • Date: 1st May 2001
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 1 & 2 2001) (REUTERS) (PERFORMANCE CLEARANCE FOR RESALE) DAVID HUGHES PERFORMING HURRICANE
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA7KEFBFG93CRQ79LOBW7LXF5H
  • Story Text: One of the UK's most successful dance companies is celebrating its 75th birthday this year, and although showcases of some of their most popular works are planned alongside a program of exiting new pieces at London's Saddlers Wells Theatre in June, the company has begun its season at a much smaller venue, the Linbury Studios, part of the recently refurbished Royal Opera House.
    One of the main attractions of the run at the Linbury Studios will be Hurricane, created by Rambert's artistic director, Christopher Bruce: "I made Hurricane for David Hughes one man show, and knew that the other choreographers involved were doing mainly movement pieces so I thought it would be a good idea to make a piece that demonstrated David's ability to be dramatic, to play characters, so I thought, let' make a story, let's do a pantomime, let's make something entirely different where we can, where the emphasis is not of the movement, the movement on the whole is quite simple, but it's those still moments and it's the use of the face, it's like a clown telling a story, the pierrot figure is once removed, he tells the story in the third person in a way, and he's able to play all these different characters, so that was the idea behind it, and it's been a huge success for him on his one man evenings and the idea was that it was a collaboration and that we'd bring it into the Rambert repertoire, and I said that I'd like David to dance it first, but I have three other boys learning the part, and they will dance it in the future."
    The dance, set to music by Bob Dylan, tells the story of American boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was wrongly imprisoned for murder. The company will also be performing premieres from two of the company's dancers, Rafael Bonachela (set to Bach cello solos) and Glenn Wilkinson (to the Aphex Twin) as well as one of Merce Cunningham's most popular works Beach Birds. The company go on to the bigger venue of Saddler's Wells in June and October.
    "We are doing a small season here at the Linbury which is mostly quite intimate work, small scale compared with the programmes at Saddler's Wells. At Saddlers Wells we have two programmes which have work from the past together with creations particularly by Richard Alston, Wayne MacGregor, a revival of a Sue (Siobahn) Davies works, we are doing Rooster again as a celebratory ending to our first programme, and I am very pleased to have Jiri Kylian's Symphony of Psalms. There is another season at Saddlers Wells with two more programmes, so altogether this year we are doing five weeks in London and of course taking our programmes round the country over the year."
    Fans can also take in some of the company's 75 year history since it was founded by Marie Rambert at a special exhibition at the Theatre Museum, Covent Garden and the National Film Theatre is presenting a series of films throughout May that look at the company's history and ballets.
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