‘Life has a way of surprising us’ went the publicity for Rambert’s new double bill, receiving its premiere in Edinburgh this week. Well, yes, that was certainly true. The word ‘kismet’ translates as ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’, but as a title, for those of a certain age, it recalled a musical and film of the mid-1950s with an exotic Arabian Nights theme, dancing girls and snatches of music by Borodin. However, anybody who’d booked for Rambert expecting more of that was in for a big surprise. The new double bill of Emma Evelein’s Gallery of Consequence (a world premiere) and Johan Inger’s B.R.I.S.A (made for NDT in 2014) was an exploration of chance and alternatives, groups and belonging, but most definitely set in the now.
Gallery of Consequence located us in an airport departure lounge – in itself one of the most stressful places on earth – where travellers crossed the stage towing luggage and doing comic walks, argued at ticket desks and generally behaved rather badly while the info on the departure boards rolled relentlessly, revving up the tension. I was already becoming concerned about the timing of my bus home…
‘Every departure marks a choice’ we were reminded, suggesting sliding-door moments to come, but they were difficult to spot. Although I searched for relevance in the destinations on the info boards, and for any real individual characterisation in terms of dance style – lots of jerky stop-frame stuff, swivelling hips, wiggly bums, ricocheting arms – the choices weren’t clear and it felt increasingly difficult to follow.
There were moments of quiet: a couple met on a bench and embarked on a pas de deux of gentle lifts before his real partner came to claim him. Dancers’ bodies sometimes rippled in tune with the departure boards. An over-wrought man on a bench started waving his arms about and shouting in his own (?) language. It was like watching a series of madcap cartoons with an alien soundtrack. Until, that is, we suddenly relaxed into the breathy and romantic ‘Come Wander With Me’, a song for the traveller if ever there was one. The Rambert dancers, young and brimming with enthusiasm, were brilliant; the choreographic demands fairly slight.
Clearly this double bill was intended as a fun evening. Johan Inger’s B.R.I.S.A, inspired by the Spanish for ‘breeze’, featured hair dryers, leaf blowers and an industrial-sized wind machine (see what he did there?). The Swedish Inger has an impressive track record, initially as a dancer with NDT and later as a choreographer working worldwide, and alongside serious work he likes to sprinkle moments of absurdist comedy around. His work Passing, seen in Ballet BC’s recent touring double bill, drew comparisons with the black humour of Samuel Beckett, but the comedy here is only fitfully dark: B.R.I.S.A was originally made for another young company, NDT2, and its playfulness suited Rambert down to the ground.
We saw the stage through a curtain of silvery threads: on a covering of what looked like shaggy carpet, a group of dancers wandered aimlessly, breaking now and then into brief solos and occasional seamless catches as they found and lost their place in the group. Movement seemed driven by a breeze blowing from the wings, and when this stopped the onstage energy flagged. To reinvigorate themselves, one acquired a fan, and competition set in. Next came a hairdryer, a leaf blower… Musically, insistent beats again gave way to song; a moment in the spotlight for the voice of Nina Simone singing ‘Wild is the Wind’. What a breeze! In the end we were all blown away by the giant wind machine.
This felt like a show for a younger generation, who perhaps experience life as a lonely business: a succession of relentlessly random snapshots not to be taken too seriously. On the night it was clearly a joyous experience for the many who leaped to their feet whooping, but perhaps a bit lightweight for anyone not quite so easily satisfied with novelty.
