Rambert Dance Company is creating a site-specific work for its new home on London’s Southbank: a new version of the 'Events' once staged by Merce Cunningham. It will feature designs by world-renowned painter Gerhard Richter and original music written and performed by Philip Selway, drummer of rock band Radiohead.
Merce Cunningham’s 'Events' were his signature works: unique combinations of diverse pieces presented and arranged for a particular performance, often with several activities happening at the same time and the audience free to move around. No two 'Events' ever happened under the exact same conditions, or offered the audience the same experience.
The Rambert Event will take place (28 June, 5 and 12 July, 5PM and 8PM) in its state-of-the-art new building on Upper Ground, London SE1. The performance will feature sections from ten Cunningham works, which have been performed by Rambert over the past 30 years, arranged and staged by Jeannie Steele, a former Cunningham dancer and rehearsal assistant.
Involved in shaping the vision of the work from the outset, Philip Selway is creating a new score for Rambert Event. He is collaborating with composers and multi-instrumentalists Adem Ilhan and Quinta to create a modular electro-acoustic score, which they will play live at each performance. Radiohead previously composed music for Merce Cunningham’s 2003 work Split Sides.
Set and costume designs will incorporate screen prints of Gerhard Richter’s Cage series (1) – (6), the first time the German artist’s work has been used in a dance performance. The paintings, which are held by Tate Modern, were inspired by the music of John Cage, Cunningham’s life partner and musical collaborator.
Rambert will be the first professional dance company to stage an 'Event' since the closure of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2011 following Cunningham’s death in 2009. The performances in June and July 2014 take place 50 years after Cunningham presented his first Event in Vienna in June 1964.
The Rambert Event is the first project to be supported by Rambert’s New Work Commissioning Fund, which raises private funds to develop exceptional projects, additional and complementary to the Company’s normal repertoire. The Fund has been founded by a generous donation from Rambert’s Chair, Sir Howard Panter, and Rosemary Squire, OBE.