Rambert Dance Company ~ featuring The Comedy of Change

Rambert Dance Company performed a bill of three works at Sadler's Wells, London. I was lucky enough to get tickets for their performance on Wednesday 4th November 2009.

Tread Softly
Choreography ~ Henri Oguike
Music ~ Franz Schubert
Costume Design ~ Asalia Khadje
Lighting Design ~ Yaron Abulafia

I feel Abulafia had done an amazing job with the lighting. It was brilliant! It really helped to enhance the piece and special placing created dancing shadows. There were squares made with profiles and then changed to angular lines in a row, lights facing downstage from near the cyclorama in an arched shape, and side lighting to light the volume of the space.

Carnival of the Animals
Choreography ~ Siobhan Davies
Music ~ Charles Camille Saint-Saens
Set Design ~ David Buckland
Costume Design ~ Antony McDonald
Lighting Design ~ Peter Mumford

This is the piece I liked the most. It was full of comical movement, recognisable music and fascinating lighting!! They wore white suits with coloured clothing (each dancer wore a different colour) underneath, so only the sleeve cuffs and socks were seen.

Here is a mini compilation of the different sections that made up this wonderful piece:


Davies used influences from many different genres of dance and even other movement such as diving into a pool and swimming.

The set had a beautiful picture of a jungle with a tiger in it. At one point, this was extended with a profile light with a green gel and what seemed to be a bespoke gobo.

The Comedy of Change
Choreography ~ Mark Baldwin
Music ~ Julian Anderson
Production Design ~ Kader Attia
Costume Design and chrysalises ~ Georg Meyer-Wiel
Lighting Design ~ Michael Mannion

This piece was so creative. It began with the dancers inside these pods (or chrysalises) that looked like white wired eggs. The performers wore white or black or half white and black clothes. The work incorporates courtship dances, display and nature's use of camoflage, as if the dancers were animals themselves. I found it very weird, but exciting and very different to anything I had seen before.


One downside to taking a module in lighting is that I often get carried away watching how the lights change and which lights are being used, rather than watching the dance. But lights can dance too.

All three pieces really inspired me but I feel disheartened by the fact that all I really remember about them just one month later is the lighting. It just shows how powerful it can be!