โPeaky Blinders is our Nutcrackerโ: how Rambert are dragging dance into the present โ and their message for Timothรฉe Chalamet
How does a 100-year-old dance company face the 21st century? For Rambertโs Benoit Swan Pouffer the answer is combining innovation with popular adaptations such as the Brummie crime saga On 15 June 1926, the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith played host to โan engaging little balletโ called A Tragedy of Fashion, a โchic trifleโ according to the press, that had been first concocted round a west London dinner table. Yet it turned out to be a momentous moment in the course of British dance. The show was produced by Marie Rambert, a Polish รฉmigrรฉ who had performed with Diaghilevโs Ballets Russes, and it was the beginnings of a dance company thatโs still going strong 100 years later. Marie Rambert was a force of nature. She has been called โan inspired talent spotter and legendary bullyโ, with โwit, taste and a sharp instinct for trendsโ, and with her nascent company (first known as the Marie Rambert Dancers, then Ballet Club, then Ballet Rambert), she kindled the talents of Britainโs most influential choreographers of the age, including Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor. โThis woman was a pioneer,โ says the companyโs current artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer. โShe was really ahead of her time.โ Nonetheless, fast-forward 100 years and Marie Rambert wouldnโt recognise the company that still bears her name, written in capitals down the side of a sleek building just behind the National Theatre, on Londonโs South Bank. Continue reading...