David Bellan talks to Fiji-born director Mark Baldwin as Rambert Dance Company prepares for a rare visit to Oxford

Mark Baldwin has had a long association with Rambert, first as a dancer, then as a renowned choreographer, with his work also performed by companies around the world. For the past 12 years he has been Rambert’s artistic director. Born in Fiji and educated in New Zealand, Baldwin first studied fine art. “I always wanted to be a dancer, but my father was an architect, and he wanted me to be an artist, so I always got paint and crayons as a kid.

“But when I was a very young child we had a neighbour who used to teach ballet to children in her back garden in the summer. I started out going to those classes, and my mother was a huge fan of the ballet, so some of my earliest memories are of New Zealand Ballet doing Giselle, and I just adored it. But I didn’t do any serious training until I was 18. My art school was actually over the road from the New Zealand Dance Centre, and I had been doing a lot of dance classes there.

“Two of the teachers came and said ‘you’re so naturally talented, if you found somewhere you could do eight hours’ technique a day, you could be a fantastic dancer. I had won an amazing scholarship to go to the art school, and got a lot of money, and I just spent it on dance classes. I’d go to dance class all morning, and then go to art school in the afternoon. I used to do really big paintings so they’d think I was doing a lot of work.”

But Mark’s art training did turn out to be very useful in his dancer career.

“Art school came in handy because I had my sights on being a choreographer. I was one of those children who, when my parents were out, would dance around the house making up steps, knocking over furniture and wearing holes the carpet. But I was also interested in painting and drawing and sculpture. Art is about composition and structure, and my paintings were all about things that moved, so the two things go together. I made my first dance piece when I was 21.”

After dancing with the New Zealand Royal Ballet, Mark came to England, and was able to join Rambert Dance Company, which, let’s not forget, was the first English ballet company, founded by Marie Rambert before Ninette de Valois began her crusade for a national company. In the early days the company was completely classical, but now performs in a range of styles. Mark told me about the four pieces coming to Oxford. “The Castaways is a terrific piece by a Yemenite Israeli called Barak Marshall. His mother is Yemenite and his dad is from the Bronx, so the dance itself is made up of Yemenite gestures. You get Arabic music and also big band tunes. It’s a story of 12 people trapped in a basement. There’s a big chute, and things fly down; a parcel or a loaf of bread, and what comes down triggers the next dance. The cast also speak in it, and it’s been a hit with the audience.”

L’apres-midi d’un Faune was created by Nijinsky in 1912. It’s about a faun who spies on some bathing nymphs, makes a pass and is rejected. The work caused a furore when the frustrated faun lay on a scarf and ‘released his desire with an orgasmic pelvis thrust’. Marie Rambert was herself dancing with Diaghilev at the time, and recreated this iconic piece for her own company years later.

“She was strict about how it should be taught. It’s a simple piece, but relies on the aloofness of the women from the faun, and Nijinsky’s revolutionary shoulder-line. The way it’s structured, the way the dancers do it, is disciplined, and the energy, atmosphere and power are amazing.”

This is followed by What Wild Ecstasy, Mark Baldwin’s own modern-day take on Nijinsky’s work .

“What Wild Ecstasy was the only dance commission for the Olympics. We got funding for that project and commissioned a young composer Gavin Higgins. I was born in Fiji, and some of the first dancing I remember was Polynesian dancers; men and women in big lines, swaying, stamping, singing and chanting. Gavin was born in the Forest of Dean, and at night he heard mating foxes on one side of the house and, on the other, illegal raves. We’ve mixed all these together, because of course Afternoon of the Faun is about sex. So this piece is also about sex, and it’s got two big duets in it, and the costumes are skimpy”.

To round things off there’s the hugely popular Rooster, in which sharp-suited, snake-hipped men, and strong sassy women, perform virtuoso courtship dances to a selection of Rolling Stones songs.

Rambert Dance Company
New Theatre, Oxford
Wednesday March 19 to Thursday March.
Tickets: Visit atgtickets.com