Just over an hour long, this triple bill, uniting Rambert and (La)Horde companies for the first time, is a blast. (La)Horde choreographers Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel say they are influenced, to a degree, by Pina Bausch… I’d say by Bausch on steroids. The dancers’ levels of hyper-intensity are Olympian. Are they real?
Do you know that Depression-era 1969 marathon dance film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Well, this is something like, only more visceral and of today’s issues and protest movements, the 99% against the 1%. Middle fingers, expletives, hostile bodies, they are very in-yer-face, and what physical stamina.
The first piece, Hop(e)storm, was created for and with Rambert, the other ironic two, (La)Horde’s Weather is Sweet of 2023 and Room with a View (2020—premièred at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), were originally performed by and created with Ballet National De Marseille. They have the audience on its feet in celebration at the end. Quite the rave…
Pierre Aviat’s musical clubland mix, at times a driving beat (with some Elvis woven in), at times ambient and then aggressive. Thumping throbs to drive you into a head-banging trance. It’s a drug, and I go home spaced out. The final image of the sixteen dancers as a pulsating amoeba, plugged in, on a never-ending loop, should make us want to join in—my body is almost propelled out of its seat.
Eric Wurtz’s lighting, at times stark, at times red, is the only set needed, the dancers are the set in Salomé Poloudenny’s individualistic punk costumes, personalised daywear, and there is a swing instructor, Simon Selmon, as well, as I read, an intimacy coordinator.
I can see why. Hop(e)storm, with its faces and feet in groins, is pretty raw. Lindy hop and rock ‘n' roll taken to present-day extremes, sexual play, gyrating, grinding bodies leave little to the imagination, a hard-on workout. Women are fierce and take on the men… equality of the sexes.
Weather is Sweet (“inspired by the LA club scene”) is more of the same, agile, strong and playful. Bouncing splits, male and female, simulated group sex that surges like the river of life. Gymnastic, inventive and almost autistic in its repetition.
Aviat mixes a harpsichord into the electronica and the pace slows—is the drug wearing off? There are silent screams, is this the collapse of civilisation? Or am I overloading it with meaning? I don't know where Weather is Sweet ends and Room with a View begins. They flow into each other.
The stagecraft, the placing and grouping of bodies of dancers, is an art installation of sorts. A protest movement, a kinetic group sculpture? Are they high on energy, emotion, anger and collective spirit? They seem to be doing their own thing and yet are in synchronicity. The choreography is clever, looks improvised and yet all of a shambolic piece. The circle dance is a moment of peace.
But what ferocity in their animosity towards us—are they the gilets jaunes that were another inspiration, and we the police? On and on the threatening cohort goes, with no end in sight. I zone out. It’s too long, yet compelling in its assertive pulsation. The dancers look exhausted but triumphant. They are brilliant.
The final word must go to (La)Horde on working with Rambert for the first time:
“Permanent dance companies in Europe today are precious spaces, true heterotopias. Working with Rambert, our first collaboration with another repertoire company, has reaffirmed how these structures create opportunities to work with exceptional dancers in a collective creative process. Rambert reflects our core values of diversity and inclusion, with dancers who bring extraordinary generosity to every step of the artistic journey.”
They will be back.