Summary
Sunshine spills in through the windows on opposite sides of the upstairs room. The boys are charging about, letting off steam. Two girls are laying out a tea-party for favourite toys while others are getting to grips with the up-turned buckets that will clang and clatter into service as mini-stilts. And no, it's not a creche for energetic tots. This is the Chiswick HQ of Rambert Dance Company and an early run-through of director Mark Baldwin's latest choreography, Seven for a secret, never to be told.
Set to a specially commissioned orchestration, by composer Stephen McNeff, of Ravel's opera L'enfant et les Sortileges, this is a dance piece focused on child's play. And Baldwin reckons that it's been one of his toughest, but equally one of his most intriguing, challenges to date. He knew that the Rambert dancers would pull out all the energy stops if they were asked to act their shoe-sizes rather than their ages, but Baldwin didn't want some superficial capers in the style of seven-year-olds. He wanted movement - and performances - that engaged on deeper levels with what it means to be seven; to be seeing the world with a child's eyes, a child's curiosity, a child's imagination. And for the running and jumping, the skipping and whirling, to be a true reflection of the wonderment and fresh responses that adults can't help but lose as they grow up.See the full content of this document
Extract
Rambert Takes a Gambol On Child's Play
In this, he was encouraged and abetted by Rambert's "scientist- in-residence", Professor Nicky Clayton. Baldwin had already drawn on her expertise in an earlier collaboration that referenced Darwinian theories, The Comedy of Change (2009...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
