Rambert unveils 2019–20 season highlights

Published: 14 May 2019
Reporter: Vera Liber

Invisible Cities
Aisha and Abhaya
Enter Achilles

Rambert Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer has announced a season including new works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Sharon Eyal, Marion Motin, Andrea Miller and Jermaine Spivey and Lloyd Newson's recreation of DV8's Enter Achilles, the first time he has recreated his work with another company.

The season will feature the world première of a collaboration between choreographer Sharon Eyal and film director Kibwe Tavares, Lolita Chakrabarti’s adaptation of Invisible Cities, directed by Leo Warner and choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for the Manchester International Festival (Warner spoke to the BTG podcast about this production and the creative team also feature on the MIF launch episode) and an international tour of the acclaimed Rambert Event celebrating Merce Cunningham in his centenary year.

Merce Cunningham created "Events" around the world, combining dance, music and design in a way unique to that location. Rambert created its own Rambert Event, featuring extracts from 10 Cunningham pieces in its repertoire to mark the opening of its new London home in 2014. Arranged and staged by Jeannie Steele, a former dancer and rehearsal assistant with the Merce Cunningham Company, Rambert Event features music composed and performed by Philip Selway of Radiohead with Adem Ilhan and Quinta. Set and costume designs are based on the Cage Series of paintings by German artist Gerhard Richter.

At the Linbury studio, Rambert and The Royal Ballet will present a contemporary fairy tale, Aisha and Abhaya (meaning ‘hope’ and ‘fearlessness’), from director Kibwe Tavares and choreographer Sharon Eyal. It tells a story of two teenaged sisters forced to flee their home and find their way in a fantastic faraway land, tackling themes of migration and displacement through a multimedia performance with music by Ori Lichtik and Brixton-based GAIKA and costumes by visual artist Uldus Bakhtiozina.

Twenty-five years after Lloyd Newson first put British pub culture onto the stage with DV8, Enter Achilles returns to examine the terrors and tenderness of beer-soaked testosterone through the actions of eight men during an evening out. This collaboration with Rambert is the first time that Newson’s work will form part of the repertoire of another company.

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