RAMBERT’S new livestream dance-film Rooms, by Norwegian choreographer and cinematographer Jo Strømgren, has been specially created in and for the isolated days of Coronavirus restriction.
See it as a glimpse into windows as you take a bike ride through a city, says the blurb. The 17 dancers perform vignettes of life in a series of rooms, morphing from one to another, sometimes via interconnecting doors and sometimes in different flats or houses.
The production has been organised to allow the dancers to do what they do, bubbled in rehearsal, to explore the range of technological possibilities and to raise funds for and continued awareness of a number of theatres around the UK and in the US. Four performances are filmed and streamed in live time to audiences buying tickets from their nearest theatre – or from Rambert itself. Bath Theatre Royal was one of the first to join this exciting project, which began with a performance at noon on Thursday 8th April. Two more performances are scheduled on Saturday and Sunday, with a 1am London performance specially filmed for an American audience.
The piece tests the versatility of the young company, moving at high speed through scenarios that include indiscretions, Hassidic Klezmer dancing, voyeurism, street dance, sex, robotics, grief, love, comedy, religious ritual, loneliness, multi-lingual misunderstandings, technology, and much more. The witty comedy is interspersed with anguish, Wagner’s Lohengrin cut with white noise and techno beats.
It all happens so fast that you want to re-wind and re-watch sections, but unlike most screened performances, you can’t. It’s like being in the theatre – or on that bike.
Rooms and its brilliant dancers take its audience through the gamut of emotions with energy, excitement and much needed fun, while the spectre of isolation is never far from the door. A wide range of dance styles are demonstrated, giving fans of classical ballet, Tanztheater Wuppertal, hip hop and folk dance something to enjoy and to think about.
See it if you can. You can watch at 8pm on 10th or 11th April, or at 1am on Sunday morning.
For more information of how to book online, visit the website, www.theatreroyal.org.uk
Photographs by Camilla Greenwell