Rambert x (LA)HORDE - Bring Your Own bill

Rambert has just unveiled their latest show at London’s Southbank, conjured by Marseille based collective (LA)HORDE…

Hannah Hernandez & Seren Williams in (LA)HORDE’s “Hop(e)storm”. © Foteini Christofilopoulou.

Rambert x (LA)HORDE
Bring Your Own: Hop(e)storm, Weather is Sweet, A Room With a View (extract)
★★★★✰
London, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
7 May 2025
rambert.org.uk
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Well, count me excited by Rambert’s latest show and its collaboration with (LA)HORDE ¹, the working name of the three choreographers/creatives who direct the Ballet National de Marseille. They are much in demand elsewhere, and at last night’s opening you could see why — (LA)HORDE delivers fresh and excitingly disruptive movement that raises the pulse and hits you right in the guts. There’s nothing intellectual here: they generate more of a primal response that has you wanting to get up, let go, and join in. And by the end, everybody was on their feet, if in well-deserved ovation rather than bopping away — our joint loss, really.

The Bring Your Own bill consists of three works, starting with the world premiere of Hop(e)storm, followed by two works originally created by (LA)HORDE for their Marseille company. The three share an abandoned, clubbing look — it all feels like uninhibited fun, and, at times, is most definitely not for the prudish. The new work starts with six pairs of dancers, the men on one side of the stage and the women on the other. You almost wonder if the men might wander across and ask for a dance, but not a bit of it — it’s the women with the agency here as they rush headlong across the space, knocking the men over or flying horizontally, only to be caught just in time before limbs would inevitably be smashed. It’s a dangerous game of trust and committed movement, but then it opens up into surreal lindy-hop line dancing, the lines ever moving and cleverly rotating. It looks carefree and spontaneous, but the Rambert dancers never let up or get a breather — all is constant turbulence, with the odd thrown movement as groups manhandle single dancers as if on a roller coaster. It ends with the twelve forming a pulsing circle of shimmering exhaustion, and we all feel happily exhausted too.

But there’s little rest, as the second work, Weather is Sweet, swiftly follows and mugs us all with what seems an edgy ‘soft porn’ exhibition that takes its inspiration from the LA clubbing scene. It’s hard to say Weather is in good taste, but it’s an urban and grungy display of attraction and getting it together today, and it’s no surprise to hear that an intimacy coach was part of the team putting it on — it asks a lot of the dancers. Hot and sultry stuff, but what really intrigued was the different quality of movement and just how powerful and steely-strong the dancers looked, particularly Hannah Hernandez. Lots to talk about as we all went off for a stiff interval drink.

A Room With a View, the last piece of the evening, shows the power of the group, as a large bundle of dancers slowly processes about the stage, casting off dance solos and little groups before reabsorbing them. The bundle has its own internal dynamic, sometimes tightly wound and sometimes loosening, as dancers find space to let go quietly within. The result is a stage with lots of sparkling movement right across it, and you want more pairs of eyes to take everything in. As with the opening work, there is lots of trust and power here as dancers support and throw each other around, with none more powerful and commanding than Simone Damberrg-Würtz. A Room closes with the group all coming together, throbbing with power before the dancers, one at a time, slowly walk off to their individual lives. Sadly, no more dance to mesmerise us, and all we can do is stand and applaud Rambert’s best after an absorbing night.

The run continues to Sat 10 May and then briefly tours - if you can, see ’em. Also great to report that (LA)HORDE and Rambert return to the Southbank in September, along with Ballet National de Marseille, to take over the Royal Festival Hall… it’s in my diary already.