Rambert Event, Sadler's Wells

Throughout 2019 dance companies the world over have been paying homage to the hugely influential American dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham, in the year that marks the centenary of his birth.

Now Rambert, Britain’s oldest dance company, joins in with Rambert Event, a programme that follows Cunningham’s precepts to the letter.

Merce Cunningham liked to stage what he called ‘events.’ These signature works, the first of which took place in 1964 in Vienna, soon became legendary for exemplifying his approach to dance making,

In a nutshell, Cunningham divorced movement from music; at the same time he was fascinated by the visual arts, and collaborations with contemporary artists such as, for example, Robert Rauschenberg, became hallmarks of his dance pieces. Score, choreography and sets/costumes would be produced in isolation and come together only at the final stage.

With all that in mind, the programme Rambert brings to Sadler’s Wells, aptly named Rambert Event, also marks a close collaboration with the fields of music and visual arts. Created in 2014, the 50th anniversary of Cunningham’s first event, to mark the opening of the company’s new home on the South Bank, Rambert Event features pieces of Merce Cunningham’s choreography, which are already part of Rambert’s repertoire.

These works have been arranged and staged by the former Cunningham dancer and rehearsal director Jeannie Steele.

The specially commissioned score is by Philip Selway (Radiohead’s multi-talented drummer), Quinta and Adem Ilhan, who will perform live. Sets and costumes are inspired by Gerhard Richter’s famous Cage Series.

Rambert is entering a new period in its distinguished history under the directorship of Benoit Swan Pouffer, who is pushing its distinctive contemporary style in fresh and exciting directions. At the same time, though, as Rambert Event amply demonstrates, Swan Pouffer is keen to keep the best of the company’s repertoire.