Podcast » Wendy Toye
The dancer and choreographer Adam Cooper introduces this wonderful interview with the dancer, choreographer, stage and film director Wendy Toye who begins by recalling chatting to Serge Diaghilev at...
companies » Ballet Rambert / Rambert Dance Company / Rambert
The ballet writer Gerald Dowler is joined in a special episode of Voices of British Ballet by Monica Mason (former Royal Ballet student, principal dancer and director), Jane Pritchard (curator of...
Podcast » Violette Verdy
This interview with Violette Verdy is introduced by the dance critic and historian Alastair Macaulay. Violette Verdy’s laughter and intelligence shine through in this discussion with Clement...
Timeline Event » 1920 – Marie Rambert opens her school
Marie Rambert (1888-1982) was a dancer, choreographer, teacher and company founder and director born in Warsaw. In 1910, she went to Geneva to study the eurhythmics of Emile Jacques-Dalcroze. She...
Timeline Event » 1930 – First public performance by the Marie Rambert Dancers
The Marie Rambert Dancers gave their first public performance at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith on the 25 February 1930 in a programme, which included Capriol Suite. It proved so popular that two...
Timeline Event » 1930 – The Ballet Club opens at the Mercury Theatre, London
Marie Rambert married English playwright Ashley Dukes in 1918. In 1928, Dukes purchased a disused church hall in Notting Hill Gate and converted it into the Mercury Theatre. This provided a permanent...
Timeline Event » 1966 – Ballet Rambert, under the direction of Norman Morrice, becomes a modern dance company
Norman Morrice was born in Mexico in 1931. He studied at Marie Rambert’s school and joined Ballet Rambert in 1953, becoming a principal dancer. In 1962, Morrice travelled to the United States of...
Timeline Event » 1981 – Phoenix Dance Company established
Phoenix Dance Company was established in Leeds in 1981 by David Hamilton, its founding director, Donald Edwards and Vilmore James. These young Black men were all inspired by the teaching they had...
Timeline Event » 1981 – Robert North becomes director of Rambert Dance
Best known as a dancer and choreographer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Robert North was appointed director of Ballet Rambert in 1981.
Timeline Event » 1981 – Premiere of Richard Alston’s Soda Lake at Riverside Studios
Soda Lake was originally created for a BBC TV programme. However, when this failed to materialise, choreographer Richard Alston decided to stage the piece for performance at Riverside Studios,...
First performed at Bristol’s Theatre Royal by Ballet Rambert in 1981, Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances tells stories of love and compassion, as death – in the form of the ‘ghost dancers’...
Timeline Event » 1982 – Premiere of Robert North’s Pribaoutki by Ballet Rambert
Robert North’s first original work for Ballet Rambert as artistic director was Pribaoutki, which literally means ‘a telling’ in Russian. It refers to a game where verse is created through one...
Timeline Event » 1987 – Premiere of Richard Alston’s Pulcinella by Ballet Rambert
Based on the commedia dell’arte narrative of the 1920 Léonide Massine / Pablo Picasso / Igor Stravinsky ballet created for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Pulcinella is a homage to the genre...
Timeline Event » 1987 – Ballet Rambert renamed Rambert Dance Company
To better reflect its status as Britain’s leading modern dance repertory company, Ballet Rambert changed its name in 1987 to Rambert Dance Company.
With music by Philip Chambon, Christopher Bruce’s Swansong is a stark male trio that evokes the physical and mental torture of political prisoners. The ballet was first performed in 1987 on tour by...
Timeline Event » 1988 – Siobhan Davies Dance founded
Born Susan Davies in London in 1950, Siobhan Davies was studying art when she joined what would become London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1967. Davies created her first piece for the company in...
Timeline Event » 1988 – Premiere of Ashley Page’s Soldat by Rambert Dance Company
Ashley Page’s Soldat, created for Rambert Dance Company in 1988, has a clear narrative taken from the folk tale A Soldier’s Tale. It acts as a counterpoint to Page’s reputation for...
Timeline Event » 1997 – New premises for dance companies
The millennium years and the 2010s can be seen as a time when investment within British dance went not to artistic output, but to infrastructure in the form of new facilities for dance companies....
Timeline Event » 1998 – Yorke Dance Project founded
Since its inception in 1998 by Yolande Yorke-Edgell, Yorke Dance Project has had a transatlantic flavour. Yorke-Edgell first worked professionally with Extemporary Dance Theatre, a venture...