RAMBERT WORKSHOP SEASON 2006


The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre 24 & 25 January 2006

Rambert Dance Company is delighted to announce the return of the Rambert Workshop Season in 2006. Six of Rambert’s versatile dancers will create new choreography, to be presented at The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January 2006.

As the first performance of Rambert’s 80th Anniversary Year, this event offers an appropriate reminder of the Company’s long-standing commitment to new choreographers and its great creative legacy. The 2006 Workshop Season will be the 25th workshop since Rambert was transformed into a contemporary dance company in 1966, when this initiative was introduced.

The dancers selected to take part in this year’s Workshop Season are Ana Luján Sánchez, Cameron McMillan, Patricia Okenwa, Mikaela Polley, Melanie Teall and Alexander Whitley. Following last year’s successful partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, dancer Cameron McMillan will be working in collaboration with composer Elspeth Brooke from the Academy to create an original music score alongside the choreography. Musicians from the Academy will also be performing the score live.

Rambert has an established track record for nurturing choreographers from within its ranks. Its founder, Marie Rambert, was famed for her ability to spot and develop new talent, including such dance luminaries as Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor and Christopher Bruce. The most recent success to come out of The Workshop Season is former-Associate Choreographer Rafael Bonachela. Mark Baldwin, Rambert’s current Artistic Director and winner of this year’s TMA Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance, also cut his choreographic teeth producing works for the Rambert Workshop Seasons and is passionate about the long-term value of this tradition.

“In 2006 Rambert Dance Company celebrates an impressive 80-year legacy of choreographic development. The illustrious list of choreographers who have emerged from the Rambert stable serves as a tribute to the Company’s belief and investment in new choreographers. This particular initiative provides an invaluable opportunity for our dancers to test and develop their choreographic skills in a professional and supportive environment. We hope that it will provide them with a platform for future choreographic opportunities”.

Mark Baldwin, Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company

Indeed, as a result of the 2005 Workshop Season, many of the dancers were offered further opportunities to present their work. Mikaela Polley’s Momenta appeared as part of Rambert’s main programme at Sadler’s Wells, Oxford and High Wycombe, and Martin Joyce’s Divine Influence formed part of Rambert’s programme in Italy during July 2005. Both works will also feature in Rambert’s spring 2006 repertoire. Ana Luján Sánchez, Cameron McMillan and Martin Joyce have also secured external contracts to perform their works at other events.

The collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music reinforces Rambert’s long-standing commitment to the importance that live music plays alongside dance. The partnership offers an exciting chance for dancer Cameron McMillan and composer Elspeth Brooke to explore the creative potential available through the partnership of music and dance during the choreographic process.

The Workshop Season forms an integral part of Rambert’s long-term artistic vision, particularly in the plans to construct a new purpose-built headquarters on the South Bank of London. The move will provide the improved facilities needed for Rambert’s dancers and choreographers to continue to create works of an international standard.

The Rambert Workshop Season 2006

The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre
Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January at 8pm
Tickets £5 to £15

Box Office: 020 7387 0031 or www.theplace.org.uk

A message from the Executive Director of Rambert

Dear Rambert Supporters

Rambert has been nominated as a finalist for the Critics' Circle
Award for Company Prize for Outstanding Repertoire (Modern). The
award will be announced on 19 January.

Susan Wyatt
Executive Director
Rambert Dance Company
http://www.rambert.org.uk

"Constant Speed is hugely enjoyable" The Times
"Constant Speed is an absolute hoot" The Independent on Sunday
Visit www.rambert.org.uk for details of where to see Constant Speed
this autumn.

Press Release – 1 November 2005





Two views of the Lowry, Salford, one of the most exciting new venues in the UK

New Rambert Commission from The Lowry Celebrating the life of LS Lowry

Rambert Dance Company is delighted to announce today, on the occasion of LS Lowry’s birthday, that The Lowry in Salford has commissioned the Company to create a new work, which embodies the art and world view of LS Lowry, to recognise 30 years since the artist’s death.

The commission, which falls within Rambert’s 80th anniversary year, will première at The Lowry on Wednesday 27 September 2006 before touring the UK as part of Rambert’s autumn 2006 repertoire.

The Lowry in Salford is a unique venue for visual and performing arts, presenting a dynamic and award-winning programme in both its galleries and theatres. As the UK’s flagship modern dance company, with an international reputation for creative adventure and artistic excellence, Rambert Dance Company is the ideal partner to collaborate with on marking this anniversary in an innovative way.

Mark Baldwin, Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company commented “I am thrilled that The Lowry chose Rambert for this significant commission and we’re very excited about the artistic opportunities it offers. We are always looking for ways to increase Rambert’s bonds with Manchester and The Lowry, and this commission is the perfect way to develop a more substantial and creative relationship for both parties”.

Rambert Dance Company is the UK’s longest-established dance company, celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2006. The new work will be one of Rambert’s major anniversary commissions, involving close collaboration with The Lowry’s artistic team on developing a piece of work that embodies LS Lowry’s art and world view. The choreographer of this new work is yet to be confirmed, but the premise offers enormous creative potential.

LS Lowry is widely considered to be one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, best known for his atmospheric urban landscapes. The Lowry houses the biggest public collection of paintings and drawings by LS Lowry, which are shown in changing thematic exhibitions alongside other artists, both historic and contemporary.

The Lowry’s Artistic Director, Robert Robson commented, “We’re keen on creating artistic links between the visual and performing arts so were delighted when Rambert were so enthusiastic about the commission. We’re not looking for a literal translation of LS Lowry’s life – just work that has an affinity with his world view. We’re really looking forward to developing our relationship with Rambert in this unique and distinctive way”.

Since Rambert’s first tour to Manchester in 1931 – its first outside of London – the Company’s relationship with the region has been particularly important. When The Lowry opened in 2000, Rambert Dance Company was invited to become a Partner Company. This collaboration will enable both parties to develop the partnership, offering increased creative input, and stronger bonds with the theatre and its audiences.


THE LOWRY
Set in a magnificent waterside location at the heart of Manchester’s thrilling new leisure destination, The Quays, The Lowry is an architectural flagship bringing together a wide variety of performing and visual arts under one roof. The Lowry is a waterfront home for the arts, entertainment and innovation. Free to enter and open all day, every day, The Lowry is there to be discovered, explored and enjoyed by everyone. Donations are encouraged to support the Galleries and the care of the LS Lowry Collection. The Lowry arts complex is located just 1.5 miles from Manchester city centre (linked via the Metrolink tram system), less than a mile from the M602, connecting it with the national motorway system and just 20 minutes drive from Manchester Airport.

The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays M50 3AZ
Information & Box Office Telephone 0870 787 5793
www.thelowry.com

Also at the Lowry in 2006
Another very special event to mark the 30th anniversary of Lowry’s death is the inaugural LS Lowry lecture, Why Lowry’s Art Lives. Delivered by distinguished writer and curator Julian Spalding, Julian will give his own insights into the enduring appeal of Lowry’s work on Tuesday 28 February 2006 at 7pm. Tickets can be booked through The Lowry’s Box Office on 0870 5790 or online at www.thelowry.com

‘Swamp’, ‘Curious Conscience’, ‘Constant Speed’ - Rambert Dance Company
Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes, England; 2nd November 2005

The bad news for Rambert is that Rafael Bonachela is leaving them to go independent. The good news is that his parting gift, “Curious Conscience”, a large ensemble piece for eighteen dancers, is yet another stunning work from this supremely gifted choreographer.

For his music, Bonachela chose Benjamin Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings”, composed during the Second World War and itself set to six poems about sleep, night and dreams, including works by William Blake, John Keats and Alfred Lord Tennyson. The choreography too is very dark and full of torment. These dreams are menacing and nightmarish.

The work opens and closes to a haunting horn solo, to which Bonachela has choreographed two equally disturbing solos, reflecting what is to come and what has gone. Gone, but it seems not forgotten. For these the dancers are dressed in white, but for the rest of the piece they are in simple black vests and shorts or skirts, always with sombre expressions, reflecting the mood.

Each section gives us something different, sometimes for the whole ensemble, in one case just two duets, one all female, one all male. In contrast to the other two works on the programme the choreography, full of Bonachela’s trademark sharpness, is mostly against the music and it’s difficult to simultaneously listen to the words and concentrate on the dance. But it doesn’t really matter because their moods compliment each other so well.

“Curious Conscience” is visually stunning thanks to Lee Curran’s lighting and Alan Macdonald’s great designs. They have combined to create a surreal landscape with the dancers seen at various times between eleven thin lack pillars, against a red cyclorama, or as some eerie shadow-like figures behind a semi-transparent screen, slit top to bottom so the dancers can enter or exit through it.

What it all means was for us to decide for ourselves. Whatever, it was completely captivating and definitely worth another viewing.

“Curious Conscience” was the extremely tasty filling between a revival of Michael Clark’s “Swamp” from 1986 and Mark Baldwin’s “Constant Speed”, created last year as part of the celebrations for Einstein Year.

“Swamp”, which opened proceedings, is an entertaining fusion of ballet and Cunningham technique that makes full use of the stage and Bruce Gilbert’s pulsing music. The four men and four women engage in shifting, ever changing relationships, often reflecting each other’s movements although rarely making eye contact. Clark is always looking to surprise us, whether it’s unexpected re-entries by someone who has only just left the stage, or sudden bursts of allegro, usually it seemed danced by the dynamic and assured Robin Gladwin, in amongst slow movement.

I really want to like Mark Baldwin’s “Constant Speed”, I really do. It is light, frothy, colourful, occasionally athletic, has moments of humour and is danced to some listenable to, although hardly arresting Lehar tunes. Perhaps being light and frothy is the root of the problem. Underneath the surface there really is nothing there. It’s like some colourful milkshake that’s been whisked too much and all the liquid has turned to bubbles.

There is certainly lots of energy with multiple stage entries and exits, the dancers constantly forming new partnerships. The dancers don’t only run on and off though, there is also lots of running around the stage. Sometimes it seems never-ending. It’s a very strange stylised run, with small steps and arms pumping. I assume to give the impression of speed, but it does look odd.

Another problem is that it’s been ‘over-designed. The men’s costumes, simple unitards, are fine, but the women’s are another matter. The ill-fitting, oversized nighties they seem to be wearing are bad enough, but the headgear is worse, whether it’s the bubble-wrap shower caps from the opening, or the giant pom-poms later on.

Someone once suggested to me that the giant glitter ball that appears near the end was supposed to represent some giant molecule. Maybe it does but it looks more like someone said “let’s have a glitter ball here” and someone else said “why not” without really thinking about it. What it is good at is dazzling anyone sitting high up in the theatre.

“Constant Speed” has been described as “physics in motion.” Maybe that’s it. I never was much good at science.

As ever, Rambert were accompanied by the excellent London Musici led by Paul Hoskins.

Rafael Bonachela by Tim Meara

Thanks for this detailed review, David, which has certainly whetted my appetite for the new work by Rafael Bonachela. He is certainly on a role at the moment and everyone here wishes him every success post-Rambert.

Here's the link to an interview I made with him two years ago.

I've just noticed on the Rambert website that Christopher Bruce's new work to premiere at Sadlers Wells is titled 'A Steel Garden'. At present that is all the information given, along with one photo of the piece.

Media Bulletin: November 2005

Rambert is Britain’s flagship modern dance company. Founded in 1926 it transformed into a modern dance company in 1966. Under its Artistic Director Mark Baldwin, Rambert Dance Company tours throughout the United Kingdom and internationally with a wide spectrum of large-scale repertoire, including both new commissions and works from the Company’s heritage. Rambert Dance Company performs to over 50,000 people each year and reaches over 6,000 individuals through its extensive education programme.


BULLETIN HIGHLIGHTS

- World Première of Christopher Bruce’s new work A Steel Garden at Sadler’s Wells

- Rambert and The Lowry announce plans for a new commission in 2006

- The Rambert Workshop Season returns to The Place in January 2006

- Mark Baldwin Wins the 2005 TMA Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance

- Archivist Jane Pritchard leaves Rambert after 23 and half years service to join the Theatre Museum as Curator of Dance



REPERTOIRE AND TOURING NEWS

Christopher Bruce World Première at Sadler’s Wells

Rambert Dance Company returns to Sadler’s Wells this autumn between Tuesday 15 and Saturday 19 November, with the World Première of Christopher Bruce’s first work for Rambert since his retirement as Artistic Director in November 2002, A Steel Garden.

The programme also includes the London Première of Curious Conscience by Rafael Bonachela – his last and most ambitious project as Associate Choreographer – and the Olivier Award-winning production of Michael Clark’s Swamp.

Christopher Bruce’s choreographic career began with Rambert in 1969 and he has gone on to become one of Britain’s most important and popular choreographers. For A Steel Garden, Bruce has collaborated with composer David C. Heath. Using Heath’s existing composition, Dawn of a New Age, as a starting point, the new, extended score evolved together with the choreography. Despite being inspired by the nature and atmosphere of the existing composition, Bruce was keen to remain as fluid as possible during the process, allowing his relationship with the dancers to influence him in the creation of the material. This new work has been designed by Marian Bruce.

Curious Conscience has been created to Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings – a haunting score set to poems by six English poets. Using both the music and the poems as inspiration, Bonachela and designer Alan Macdonald have created a dark and surreal landscape, which reflects the central themes of ‘night’, ‘sleep’ and ‘dreams’.

Rambert Dance Company performs at Sadler’s Wells between Tuesday 15 and Saturday 19 November at 7.30pm. There is a family matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday 19 November which includes A Steel Garden and Curious Conscience only. Tickets available from the box office on 0870 737 7737 or online via www.sadlerswells.com



New Lowry Commission for Anniversary Year

Rambert Dance Company is delighted to announce that The Lowry in Salford has commissioned the Company to create a new work, which embodies the art and world view of LS Lowry, to recognise 30 years since the artist’s death. The commission, which falls within Rambert’s 80th anniversary year, will première at The Lowry on Wednesday 27 September 2006 before touring the UK as part of Rambert’s autumn 2006 repertoire.

LS Lowry is widely considered to be one of the most popular artists of the 20th century, best known for his atmospheric urban landscapes. The Lowry houses the biggest public collection of paintings and drawings by LS Lowry, which are shown in changing thematic exhibitions alongside other artists, both historic and contemporary.

The new work will be one of Rambert’s major anniversary commissions, involving close collaboration with The Lowry’s artistic team on developing a piece of work that embodies LS Lowry’s art and world view. The choreographer of this new work is yet to be confirmed, but the premise offers enormous creative potential.

When The Lowry opened in 2000, Rambert Dance Company was invited to become a Partner Company. This collaboration will enable both parties to develop the partnership, offering increased creative input, and stronger bonds with the theatre and its audiences.



The Rambert Workshop Season 2006

The Rambert Workshop Season returns in 2006, with six of Rambert’s versatile dancers creating new choreography, to be presented at The Place: Robin Howard Dance Theatre on Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 January 2006.

As the first performance of Rambert’s 80th Anniversary Year, this event offers an appropriate reminder of the Company’s long-standing commitment to new choreographers and its great creative legacy. The 2006 Workshop Season will be the 25th workshop since Rambert was transformed into a contemporary dance company in 1966, when this initiative was introduced.

The dancers selected to take part in this year’s Workshop Season are Ana Luján Sánchez, Cameron McMillan, Patricia Okenwa, Mikaela Polley, Melanie Teall and Alexander Whitley. Following last year’s successful partnership with the Royal Academy of Music, dancer Cameron McMillan will be working in collaboration with composer Elspeth Brooke from the Academy to create an original music score alongside the choreography.



COMPANY NEWS

Mark Baldwin wins 2005 TMA Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance

Rambert Dance Company is delighted to announce that Artistic Director Mark Baldwin has won the 2005 TMA Theatre Award for Achievement in Dance. The Award recognises Mark for the creation of Constant Speed and the high calibre of his artistic directorship of Rambert Dance Company.

Rambert Dance Company has also been nominated for The Company Prize for Outstanding Repertoire (Modern) at the 2005 Critics Circle National Dance Awards.

Mark Baldwin’s leadership of Rambert over the last three years has been hailed as a resounding success by audiences and critics alike. His incisive direction and strong creative vision has infused Rambert with a renewed sense of purpose, producing a fresh and energetic repertoire, an exceptional troupe of dancers and an array of innovative collaborations and commissions.

Baldwin’s first choreographic work as Artistic Director since his appointment in November 2002, Constant Speed, has been widely acclaimed for its novel and charming approach to physics. Inspired by three of Einstein’s key 1905 theories, Constant Speed has Rambert’s dancers whizzing around the stage like hyperactive molecules, in a joyous and athletic frenzy of movement. Constant Speed was commissioned by The Institute of Physics to celebrate Einstein Year in 2005 and appears at every venue, apart from Sadler’s Wells, on Rambert’s autumn tour.



RAMBERT STAFF

Staff Departures

Jane Pritchard, Archivist:

Rambert Dance Company bids farewell to Archivist Jane Pritchard who leaves the Company in December 2005 to become Curator of Dance at the Theatre Museum. After 23 and half years with Rambert Jane has transformed the Company’s remote and disordered collection of historic records into a functional and treasured archive.

When Jane took up the post, Ballet Rambert was already over 50 years old and had collected a huge amount of archive material that, in the absence of anyone prepared to take charge of it, lay if not unloved, certainly untended. Added to this, without an assigned warden, much of the historical material had been dispersed outside of Rambert’s protection and needed to be retrieved.

It is a tribute to Jane’s work that so much material has been returned, and the archive has now gained a public profile. Indeed, as the oldest dance company in the UK, Rambert now has a remarkably complete archive, which serves a very functional purpose for the Company, both internally and externally.

Chairman of the Board Prudence Skene, who invited Jane to join Rambert over 23 years ago, commented, “Under Jane's care the archive has been increased, tended, catalogued and certainly loved. She hands on to her successor her creation of the most important dance archive in the UK, a very important and concrete entity. What will be greatly missed is her huge knowledge, her articulation and the enormous enthusiasm she manages to portray. Rambert is very fortunate that it has had her for as long as it has and we send her all our best wishes for her future career at the Theatre Museum.”


Other Departures

Amanda Jones, who joined Rambert in May 2005 as part of the Arts Council England, London Senior Dance Manager’s Fellowship Programme, has been appointed Director, Arts and Heritage Programme, at the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

The Senior Dance Manager’s Fellowship Programme was designed to enhance the professional development of experienced dance managers and add to their existing leadership skills in order to respond to the future needs of leading middle-scale dance companies. During her time with Rambert, Amanda has been working closely with Susan Wyatt, Rambert’s Executive Director and programme mentor, to develop her leadership and executive skills.

Amanda commented, “My eight months at Rambert have been instructive, exhilarating and great fun. Arts Council England's Senior Dance Manager's Fellowship has given me exactly what I need to assist my development into general dance management and Rambert has been the ideal environment in which to undertake it.”

Rambert Dance Company also bids farewell to Marketing Manager Chloe Leigh, who leaves the Company after five and half years to become Marketing and Publications Manager for See Tickets, and Sound Technician Mark Thackaray moves onto a new role at the Royal Opera House as Broadcast Engineer.


Rambert’s Dancers Enjoy Workshop Success

Over the next few months, a number of Rambert’s dancers have been give the opportunity to present their choreography, as created for the 2005 Workshop Season, at external events.

Martin Joyce has been invited to perform and extend his workshop piece Divine Influence, in collaboration with dancer Angela Towler, at ‘Breathless’ – a new contemporary arts and culture season supported by the International Herald Tribune. Martin and Angela will perform this extended work on Saturday 12 November at the City Lit venue, accompanied by solo pianist Yekaterina Lebedeva. For more information see:

http://www.iht.com/marketing/breathless ... ompany.htm

Dane Hurst and Ana Luján Sánchez have been invited by John Ashford of The Place to perform CervaNtes on Friday 9 December as part of their ‘White Christmas Season’ this year. Since its creation in January 2005, CervaNtes has also been performed by The Curve Foundation in Scotland as part of their Spring 2005 tour. Please contact Richard Thompson at The Place for more information on 020 7387 9013 or Richard.Thompson@theplace.org.uk

Cameron McMillan will present an excerpt from his piece Kiss My Eyes at the Year of the Volunteer Awards ceremony on Sunday 22 January 2006. For more information about this initiative see http://www.yearofthevolunteer.org/



DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION


Coin Street Development

Rambert Dance Company recently announced plans for the development of a new £16.5 million headquarters for the Company on a prime site on the South Bank in London, adjacent to the National Theatre, to replace its outdated premises in West London.

The new centre, designed by award-winning architects, Allies & Morrison, will house state of the art studio facilities, community and education spaces, administration and technical support systems for the Company’s international touring programmes. Located in the heart of the South Bank on a site provided by Coin Street Community Builders, Rambert will become part of London’s most vibrant cultural quarter.

The Company has outgrown its premises in Chiswick, and the current building is hampering Rambert’s efforts to remain at the forefront of modern dance. The South Bank move will provide the space needed for Rambert’s dancers and choreographers to continue to create works of an international standard. It will also allow the Company to continue its role of nurturing new British-based talent.

At the same time, the new building will allow Rambert to engage much more fully with the wider community, through education projects and outreach programmes. The new education facilities will also greatly enhance the scale and quality of outreach work on offer to the regions as part of Rambert’s national touring remit.

The total project budget is estimated at £16.5m. The generous gift of the land and development grants from the Arts Council England and London Development Agency means that Rambert already has £7m, leaving £9.5m to raise.


Lambeth and Southwark Outreach

Following the launch of the Company’s relocation to the South Bank of London, Rambert Education is pleased to announce the first of its schools-based projects in the boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.

In September 2005 the Paul Hamlyn Foundation awarded the Company £60,000 over three years to work in Lambeth secondary schools. The project will run between November 2005 to March 2008 and engage over 500 young people and up to 60 teachers throughout the project. The scheme will deliver high quality dance education and an introduction to contemporary dance for both teachers and pupils involved.

Additionally, Lambeth Education, North Lambeth Education Action Zone and Lambeth Education Business Partnership have engaged Rambert to deliver a series of residencies in Lambeth Schools over the coming year. Final details of the project are still being confirmed by the work is anticipated to commence soon.


Constant Speed Education Success

Mark Baldwin’s Einstein-inspired Constant Speed has proved to be as much of a hit off the stage has it has on, through Rambert Education’s extensive programme of outreach work this autumn.

Rambert Animateurs have delivered over 70 workshops in schools and colleges, and Constant Speed has been successful in attracting science colleges and teachers as well as acting as the starting point for dance and science collaborations. Rambert Education and Professor Ray Rivers from the Imperial College London, co-delivered a lecture demonstration on Constant Speed for The Teacher Scientist Network. In Bristol, Rambert used Constant Speed in a residency with five primary schools and in Norwich, Rambert worked with mothers and their children using the choreography as a stimulus.

Rambert open at Sadler's wells tonight with a strong programme: Michael Clark's superb "Swamp", the London premiere of Rafael Bonachela's "Curious Conscience" and the premiere of Christopher Bruce's "A Steel Garden". Catch it if you can!

No more Mr Nice Guy
Mark Baldwin used to be a soft touch. Then he took over Rambert Dance Company. By Judith Mackrell for The Guardian.

Three years as head of Rambert Dance Company have not made Mark Baldwin blasé. Perched outside his door is a bust of the bossy visionary Marie Rambert, who founded the company 79 years ago. Whenever Baldwin passes her intimidating profile, he likes to exchange some sort of greeting: "I look at Madame and she looks back at me. Sometimes I'm feeling a bit disrespectful so I tweak her nose; other times I pat her cheek and thank her."

click for more

Just spotted that the Rambert website now has a page with video excerpts, including: 30 second tasters from some of the works on tour this Autumn, a 5-minute piece about the Company and the making of "Constant Speed" and, best of all, a delightful 2 minute scamper through a working day at Rambert. Enjoy:

http://www.rambert.org.uk/whats_on/venu ... p?art=1601

Rambert at Sadler's Wells, 15th November 2005 - first impressions

The over-riding impression is of the exceptionally strong hand of dancers that Rambert currently boasts. The star work was again Michael Clark's "Swamp" and this mix of ballet and Cunningham, which are relatives in any event, certainly looks stunning on the Sadler's stage.

Rafael Bonachelas's new work, "Curious Conscience", has been honed to slick perfection by the dancers on tour and with lots of energy and innovative lighting, it certainly makes its mark, even if it is a little unrelenting.

Surprisingly, Christopher Bruce's, "A Steel Garden", has an exotic, oriental feel, but it takes little while to get going. Some fine duets bring the work to life.

A full house, including plenty of schoolchildren, shouted their approval after each piece.

Sadler's Wells, 15th November 2005

Janice: I loved every minute! "Swamp" was the most classical and that probably suited me better - it was ravishing. The Bruce piece, "A Steel Garden", was hypnotic, but I was pleased when it livened up. "Curious Conscience" was very radical - although individual movement was jerky, in the ensemble pieces it flowed together.

Lisa: "Swamp" is so clever, so well made. The dancers are amazing. Bonachela's "Curious Conscience" was distinctive and I loved the two duets - the sets and lighting were fantastic.

Ozzie Chick (her choice of name, not mine!): I was very impressed by the dancers - so strong. I wasn't so impressed with the choreography, but it showed off the dancers well. A programme of three abstract movement pieces is too much for me. I tend to enjoy more expressive work such as Nacho Duato and Graeme Murphy's "Swan Lake" for Australian Ballet.

A Steel Garden/Curious Conscience/Swamp
By John Percival for The Stage

Starting with David C Heath’s largely percussive score, Christopher Bruce and his designer wife Marian have conceived an environment for his new ballet, with metal rods hanging from horizontal bars and two small gongs at the back. Hence the title A Steel Garden.

As dancers move through the hangings, or strike them with little rods, they produce clangings that complete the accompaniment. Their actual dances - with exploratory duets, twists, stretches and ranging lifts - grow from sometimes slow and measured entrances.

click for more