Though choreographers today seldom base their work on current or past events, Arthur Pita's imagination has gravitated towards a bitter slice of social history that may have particular resonance in these difficult economic times. The World's Greatest Show thrusts 11 professional dancers and 30 volunteers into a feverish dance-theatre piece, packed with dancing, singing and occasional dialogue, that eerily evokes the grueling dance competitions of the 1930s.
The World's Greatest Show
Organized throughout America as entertainment for some and a source of food, lodging and potential prize cash for others, these competitions sprang from the pervasive hardships of the Depression. Crowded initially, Pita's endurance contest quickly drains the hopeful participants of energy, and the ballroom empties quickly. Eight couples remain, then four couples, compelled by desperation to show off, to race, to lie, even to marry. Eventually exhaustion defeats them all, as inevitably as the world outside has defeated them.
Absorbed, sympathetic and horrified by the finely drawn characters and their ferocious determination, the 2014 audience and the 1935 audience gradually became indistinguishable. Touched by the suffering and indomitible spirit of history's competitive dancers, Pita has vividly restored them to life. Rambert Dance Company is exploring history in a different way by reviving the format of Merce Cunningham's site-specific Events. For fifty years, Cunningham created Events by choosing a unique combination of excerpts from his repertory for each performance and its location. Rambert has followed his lead, selecting the excerpts from the ten Cunningham pieces it has staged previously.
Rambert Event lets the audience move between two studios to watch the action unfold. Picture: Tony Nandi
Moving at will between two studios in the company's new home on the South Bank, each viewer concocts his own Event, sampling Cunningham's astounding range of invention and Rambert's alertness to its challenges. As long as performers are as dedicated and well coached as these, Cunningham's magnificent repertory will endure for years to come.
Find out more
The World's Greatest Show, July 11 and 12, Corn Exchange, Ipswich, www.danceeast.co.uk and July 27, Royal Opera House, www.roh.org.uk
Rambert Event, 5 and 12 July, www.rambert.org.uk/event
Ballet to see this summer
In Living Memory, James Streeter's response to texts about World War I for English National Ballet as part of the Latitude Festival, 20 July, Sadler's Wells. www.sadlerswells.com
Another ambitius combination of professionals and volunteers, Rosemary Lee's Under the Vaulted Sky involves more than 100 participants in an outdoor promenade performance as part of IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2014. 18-20 July, www.ifmiltonkeynes.org.
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