Rambert Dance – Linear Remains
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains – Amy Hollingsworth
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains – Amy Hollingsworth
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains
Rambert Dance – Linear Remains – Rafael Bonachela
“Linear Remains” by Rafael Bonachela opens in silence and half-darkness with an exceptional solo for Amy Hollingsworth and two groups of stationary dancers at the back and side of the stage. She stretches and bends in slow motion with occasional rapier strokes of a leg or an arm. At the end of this section, as she walks to the back, there is a striking image with the point of an elbow above her head and as the arm slowly unfolds onto the shoulder of one of the other dancers, the music starts and the lights go up – breathtaking. Bonachela then explores the movement established in the opening solo, performed to a hissy, minimalist score by Christian Fennesz. The choreographer has extended this piece to 12 dancers, as he is keen to extend his palette to include larger groupings. This is a sound development strategy, but the patterns here sometimes seem too complex. Nevertheless, I agree with an ex-member of the Company who told me that Bonachela has the knack of making the Rambert dancers look very good. ” Stuart Sweeney May 25, 2004 — Sadler’s Wells, London.
“Linear Remains began life as an choreographic exercise in which Bonachela was attempting to develop a style which was “honest to (his) individuality”. It begins and ends with a solo female dancer, and in between it grows in intensity, with a series of different combinations of dancers. It belongs to that genre of contemporary dance that we might describe as dance for dance’s sake, an exploration of movement language and movement possibilities. The possibilities of Bonchela’s style are certainly rich and this was a fascinating piece to watch. It was unfortunate, then, that the lighting was, unusually for Rambert, a little unsympathetic to the piece. It’s a minor thing, possibly, but when the first time you can actually see the dancers’ costumes clearly is during the curtain call, you do begin to wonder what else you might have missed, and there were times that I felt the lighting did the dancers no favours.” Review by Peter Lathan.