Rambert - Sadler's Wells

After a 13-year absence, Rambert returns with its new quadruple bill - an eclectic programme from some choreographic heavyweights. There is much excitement surrounding Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, created in 1991, which seems to be one of those pieces that age incredibly well. It is set to a selection of Rolling Stone hits – this might be connected to how well it has aged – and it plays with male and female dynamics, relaying the spirit of an era where the sexual revolution was omnipresent.  
As with many of the late Merce Cunningham’s works, opinions differ on Sounddance. Named after a line in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, this piece plays with the cycle of creation and destruction – Cunningham himself said it offers an impression of a space observed under a microscope. Sounddance was created in 1975 and was performed by the company for its farewell tour, which they embarked on after Cunningham's death in 2009. With almost a dozen Cunningham works in their repertoire, Rambert’s contribution to keeping these works alive is an important one.      
Typical to the small world of dance, Lucinda Childs actually trained under Cunningham in New York in the 1960's. Not many of her works have a relation to the UK, as she has spent most of her career working in the US and continental Europe, but she was commissioned to create Four Elements for Rambert in 1990, which is also the last time the company performed it.
Rounding off the bill is Richard Alston’s Dutiful Ducks. Created as a solo for a young Michael Clark in 1982, it plays with words and their sounds, giving them a physical expression. The short piece is set to text-sound by American composer Charles Amirkhanian, with the nonsensical lyrics of the soundscape supporting the humorous language of the choreography.