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“It has to be eclectic,” writes Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer on the creation of this mixed programme.
“It has to feel like a buffet.” He’s achieved that objective with the company’s latest triple bill, which opens with Wayne McGregor’s PreSentient (2002).
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Choreographed to the airless minimalism of Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet, the movements have a flowing athleticism which contrasts with an undercurrent of tension and restraint.
Some of the partnered stretches and twists give the appearance of being operated by an unseen puppeteer.
Intense and emotionally charged, it’s juxtaposed with the more light-hearted Rouge (2019). Marion Motin’s background in choreographing hip-hop and pop videos is apparent in the piece, performed with a live guitarist on stage.
Swathed in dry ice, the colourfully clad dancers at first lie recumbent. Then a sequence of standing and falling is gradually replaced by spins, with a red neon light moving horizontally as the piece becomes more urban, resembling an underground house party.
Fun yet lacking in narrative drive, it’s followed by Hofesh Shechter’s In Your Rooms (2007). Dark and questioning, it presents groups of dancers in a series of jump cuts, with Lee Curran’s lighting vital to the effectiveness of this technique.
It brings into focus vignettes during which dancers variously collapse, shuffle forwards and punch the air with political zeal.
The confident propulsion of the live band is absent in the choreography, which constantly interrogates itself. “I can do better than that,” intones a voice near the start, while “Don’t follow leaders, follow me!” a banner proclaims during another sequence.
This makes for an unsettling, though perhaps overlong, piece that nonetheless leaves a lasting aftertaste.
Touring until May 21, details: rambert.org.uk.
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