¡¡¡¡Rambert Dance Company Performed In Beijing.

¡¡¡¡During this Spring Festival season dance lovers in Beijing had their eyes opened to the ever-changing world of contemporary dance by Rambert Dance Company of Great Britain.

¡¡¡¡Rambert Dance Company was established in 1926. It is Britain's dance company with long histoty.

¡¡¡¡This time the Rambert Dance Company presented four of the best pieces from its repertoire in China from renowned choreographers including Karole Armitage Hans van Manen and Rafael Bonachela.

¡¡¡¡¡¡£ "21" is Rafael Bonachela's new piece about celebrity worship. The piece has 3 sections each lasting 7 minutes. The work opens with a trio of females who perform an intricate routine that incorporates daring lifts and skilful maneuvers. At the beginning of the second section a huge gauze screen flies in at the front of the stage onto which a film of Kylie Minogue is projected. Bonachela has close connections with Kylie¢Ÿhaving choreographed her "Fever 2002" tour. Not only does the piercing little voice of Kylie Minogue feature in Benjamin Wallfisch's accompanying score¢Ÿbut her face and body cast a giant video spell over the dancers during the whole of the work's middle section. The dancers are visible through the screen and appear to interact with Kylie. The final section uses all 14 dancers and becomes much faster in pace. There are moments when the dancers move in unison¢Ÿwhich creates a very powerful atmosphere.

¡¡¡¡Hans van Manen's "Visions Fugitives" takes its title and structure from Prokofiev's accompanying musical miniatures and explores a different dance idea in each of its 20 sections. Most of the choreography is light fleet and fantastical showcasing the pleasure of dance as pure craft and invention. But van Manen is wary of doing the simple thing. At the end he slips in a little duet where the man having balanced his partner in a neck hold apparently strangles her and leaves her for dead.

¡¡¡¡The other two pieces are "Living Toys" and "Pre-Sentient". For all of Beijingers this really was a good chance to open the eyes and hearts to a new art form by seeing a world-class contemporary dance group performing four of their best and newest pieces - Rambert Dance Company.