A couple of evenings ago I attended a performance of Rooster by Rambert, from their new home on London’s Southbank, at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. The company also staged Subterrain and The Castaways from their repertoire. First was Subterrain, a very dark mysterious piece with underworld tones in places which sometimes spilled over into other worldliness.
Then came Rooster, for me the highlight of the show. Recordings from The Rolling Stones fused perfectly with high energy dance and flashes of humour for this thrilling interpretation from Rambert.
Little Red Rooster, Lady Jane, Not Fade Away, As Tears Go By, Paint It Black, Ruby Tesday, Play With Fire and Sympathy For The Devil, were the chosen tracks. By the last song the company was on fire.
Finally, The Castaways followed. Carrying overtones of Lord of the Flies by William Golding the company introduced dialogue in multiple languages reflecting the diversity of the dancers.
At the post performance talk Artistic Director, Mark Baldwin explained that the company likes to keep evolving The Castaways using gestures and dialogue contributed by their international cast members.
I noted from the performance programme that Baldwin has a BA in Fine Art, and is keen to embrace other disciplines and work collaboratively. Amongst others he has worked with Anish Kapoor and Brian Elias..
I find this ‘fusion’ approach extremely interesting, as it provides endless variety of combinations to explore. It seems to be very popular with audiences in the north east as the show was very well attended on the first night.
Onto other matters. I have been looking at the work of artist Roxanne Permar, (b. 1952, Philadelphia). She and I both seem to share a love of textiles and knitting. Between 1992-95 she collaborated with Wilma Johnson on The Croft Cosy Project, around the time of her relocatiion to Burra Isle. This project seems to be along the lines of the ‘wrapping’ technique employed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The project saw Permar’s croft enveloped in a tea cosy type hand knitted construction. I have been unable to find any photographs of the end result, but I think it conjures up a very comforting image which reinforces the warmth of the hearth-centre of the home.
