rambert

"Innovative". "witty", "astonishing" and "glamorous"... This is typically how Rambert is described by dance critics and audiences alike. Rambert Dance Company is one of the most exciting forces in dance, as well as Britain's longest established contemporary dance company.

Previously known as the Ballet Club and Ballet Rambert, Rambert is acclaimed for its creativity and the variety of its productions. In addition to its wealth of creations, Rambert has selected some of the finest established works from internationally acclaimed choreographers. In its earlier years, these were ballets by Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine and August Bournonville, including the first UK performance of La Sylphide. More recently they have included works from Merce Cunningham, Jirí Kylián and Mats Ek. This dual approach to repertoire existed from the beginning; the policy statement published in the Ballet Club's first programme in 1931 proclaimed the Company's 'twin purposes of tradition and experiment'.

Rambert Dance Company owes its existence to the Polish-born dancer and teacher, Marie Rambert (1888-1982), whose initial passion for dance came from seeing Isadora Duncan perform in 1904. By her mid-20s, Rambert had a rich heritage of dance and theatre to draw from. She had been exposed to mid-European developments during the three years (1909-1912) spent studying Eurhythmics with Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, following which she spent a season with Sergei Diaghilev's innovative Ballets Russes, serving as Vaclav Nijinsky's assistant on Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring).

Rambert's evolution has encompassed many phases. In the 1930s, the then Ballet Club was essentially a London-based experimental workshop, giving occasional seasons in other cities. In 1943, after a year and a half without performances, Ballet Rambert (the name adopted in 1935) began to receive funding from the Council for the Encouragement for Music and the Arts (later the Arts Council of England) and became a repertory company touring Britain and, later, internationally.

Main picture: Grinning In Your Face

Article by Jane Pritchard, Rambert Archivist