Organising Bodies: We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon
Dancers // Conor Kerrigan, Alessio Corallo, Hua Han, Adél Bálint extract from Room With A View shot by Shokirie Clarke
Words MIRANNE WATLEY
When people say London is great because there’s always something happening, the upcoming immersive performance of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon at the Southbank Centre is a perfect example.
Marking another collaboration between Rambert and (LA)HORDE’s Ballet national de Marseille, this performance will use a mix of dance, film, and music to build a spectacular world for audiences to independently move through. We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon (reportedly quoted from Gene Kelly) questions the boundaries placed on bodies in our contemporary systems. The performance will run for four nights, from the 3rd to the 6th of September, and promises to be a provocative and exciting evening.
Dancers // Conor Kerrigan, Alessio Corallo, Hua Han, Adél Bálint extract from Room With A View shot by Shokirie Clarke
Before the first performance on Wednesday, MOVES watched rehearsals in Rambert and spoke with two of the dancers - Jau’mair Garland and Coke Lopez de LaMadrid - whose duet, Us, will premiere in this project. Jau’mair and Coke spoke about the rehearsal process of this duet, working with Benoit Swan Pouffer, and shared how the choreography has been “based on who the dancers are… and how [Benoit] knows us to move”. They also discussed their excitement to be collaborating with such a “groundbreaking company” as (LA)HORDE. “You have no idea what they can do”. We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon’s UK premiere will combine both (LA)HORDE’s existing repertoire and newly choreographed works from Rambert, such as Us.
Talking to Jau’mair and Coke also shed light on the transformative potential of the performance. Because audiences are taking on a new level of responsibility, traditional ideas of spectatorship will be called into question. Coke reflected on how the immersive format removes the “barrier” typically felt in theatre between audience and artist. “They’re not just watching, they’re somehow participating in a way too”. Jau’mair also shared how this format changes the performance for the dancers as he feels it allows for more moments of “play with the audience”. “You’re so close, why would I not interact with you?”.
This project doesn’t only probe the audience/performer barrier but spotlights broader social divides as well. Wealth inequality, for example, is grappled with. Both the freedom created for audiences through the unusual staging and its place within such an iconic representation of London’s cultural landscape (the Southbank Centre) changes “what dance looks like and who it can cater to”. Jau’mair, therefore, hopes the work will encourage audiences “to reconsider the way that classism exists” in dance performances.
We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon, performed by Rambert and Ballet national de Marseille, will question the ways that bodies are organised and divided in our contemporary age. Audiences can expect to move through the transformed space for three hours of potent talent. The power of the performance is best summed up by Coke: “our energy doesn’t fit on a stage so it has to spread out and take over the whole building”.
RAMBERT and BALLET NATIONAL DE MARSEILLE, under the direction of (LA)HORDE join forces to transform the entire Royal Festival Hall and the wider site of the Southbank Centre with the UK Premiere of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon (3 - 6 Sep). This large-scale project is made possible with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
