Mark Baldwin has been Rambert's artistic director for the past four years, and although a fine choreographer himself, he has unselfishly devoted this 80th anniversary tour to the work of others, including two pieces by young dancers in the company. The first of these is Divine Influence by Martin Joyce, danced by himself and his friend Angela Towler, who he says inspired the work. Steeped in classical dance - he was in both the Royal Ballet and the Royal Danish Ballet - Martin says he wanted to create a piece that got away from the classical idea of beautiful dance. All the same, what he has created is very beautiful indeed, the two dancers in very loose white costumes that often float away from the body, exploring the non-classical possibilities of classical exercises, accompanied by the turbulent third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.
Transit is a long solo created and danced by Melanie Teall to an electronic score by Eric Serra. She says it was inspired by the journey of the planet Venus, and she has used images of gravity, sculpture and the concept of infinity. It's hard to identify any of this, but it's a forceful, masculine work in which she seems to be testing the possibilities of her body, and her ability to move in different ways.
I find it hard to love the legendary Merce Cunningham's much admired Pond Way. Unusually, Cunningham has given a clue as to what the work is about: "Ponds are a way of life: bogs, water-lilies, a haven for birds, myriad layers of different activities." All these things are hinted at, with the large cast of dancers in white presenting a work that is bright and pleasing, but leaves me with the feeling that they have been experimenting with movements to be used in a yet unmade piece.
Stand and Stare (pictured), by Darshan Singh Buller, marks the 30th anniversary of the death of the painter L.S.Lowry. There is no attempt at a literal evocation of northern towns populated by matchstick-men. Rather, this is a dark piece in which the dancers move in frieze-like formations to Bartok's initially sombre sonata for two pianos and percussion. Finally, the music and dance reach a happy climax on the sea-shore with Lowry's painting The Sea as a backdrop. A clever work that shows us that the simple man' wasn't really simple at all.
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