CityLife

Rambert Dance Company: Comedy of Change + Carnival of the Animals + A Linha Curva

ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT: Rambert Dance Company

THERE have been several artistic attempts to pay tribute to Darwin this year, and The Comedy Of Change, Rambert’s newest piece, was only a week old when they did it at The Lowry as the middle of a triple programme.
 
Julian Anderson’s commissioned score is abstract and far from tuneful, but it provides a structure and some evocative sounds. Kader Attia’s design (and particularly Georg Meyer-Wiel’s costumes) creates the most striking elements of the show, with the hatching chrysalises of the opening a wonderful piece of imagery.
 
Choreographer Mark Baldwin – Rambert’s artistic director – wisely lets that have its effect before the music even begins, but indulges in creepy-crawly, reptilian, bird-like and other impressions as things go on.

Only once do we see the non-survival of the unfittest, so it’s a pretty escapist view of Darwin, really.
 
Sly look at human nature

But it was a bit too earnest to be a bundle of fun, though the remainder of the programme made amends for that.
 
The opening piece, Siobhan Davies’ Carnival Of The Animals (to Saint-Saens’ well-known score) was a reminder of how you can take inspiration from the natural world for a sly look at human nature.
 
Much of the cleverness comes from its way of contradicting expectations – the tortoises use peacock feathers as their shells, for instance, and elephant wears a tail coat. But then, you often need only add a tail to a human to make him animal-like.
 
The cuckoo deep in the woods becomes quite moving, as a sad and lonely damsel refuses to heed his simple amour … and the biggest challenge to expectation is the swan, of course – it turns out to be a male cellist with problems, in arch contrast to the legendary dying song danced by Pavlova.
 
Innocent fun

But though thoughtful, everything was really innocent fun. And the music was very finely played by the Rambert musicians, conducted by Paul Hoskins.
 
But nothing could prepare you for the finale – the vivid, throbbing energy and colour of Itzik Galili’s A Linha Curva was a wonderful knock-out of a piece which rightly got a standing ovation.
 
Streetwise sexiness

The 26-strong company – together with their four-strong percussionists who clicked and hollered and slapped their accompaniment as well as playing it – put on a display of streetwise sexiness and virtuoso hoofing that is surely one of the most stunning short pieces of dance ever put upon a stage.
 
It came from one of the biggest Rambert companies we have ever seen in the north west, which is itself a pleasure to record. More of the same, please!
 
Until Friday, September 25.