Ballet meets Picasso in Rambert's The 3 Dancers

Tell us about The 3 Dancers and how you approached the project?

I was commissioned by Rambert dance company to create a new work inspired by Picasso’s ‘The Three Dancers’ with original music by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin. I started by researching Picasso’s life and work, so as to be able to put the painting and painter into context, and it was through this research that I became interested in exploring Cubism and how it could be translated into movement. I used the narrative of the painting, which is full of love, passion, desire and even suicide to inspire the work but avoided using the work to tell the story of the painting.

In this piece there are six dancers; three dressed in black and three in white. What is their significance and why did you decided to work with six dancers rather than three?

I found that the painting consisted of more people than just the three dancers. There are hidden faces, shadows, multiple characteristics in each individual in the painting and then there is the viewer and the painter too. By using six dancers dressed in black and white I was able to play with perspective, using the contrast this created to help highlight the eternal emotive themes of Picasso’s work and enhance the cubist feel of fragmentation.

Picasso’s painting is vividly colourful, where did the idea to use a monochrome palate for the work come from?

Picasso created a range of monochrome works and even played with the idea of never using colour again. He claimed that by taking colour away, the formal structure and autonomy of form would be highlighted. I found this hugely inspiring and wanted to work within that principal. After several discussions with my set and costume designer, Kimie Nakano, we decided on a complete monochrome world.

Cubism is an element of Picasso’s work you were particularly keen to explore, especially how it could be translated into movement. How did you approach this idea and how was it explored during the rehearsal process?

I have been deconstructing the content of the painting by playing with different perspectives. By manipulating light and shadow, including short black-outs to guide the eye of the audience, I have layered and deconstructed movement sequences to create the fragmented feel of Picasso’s Cubist art works. During rehearsals we explored how to convey an emotion without it becoming a narrative. We started rehearsals copying the image of the painting as I was particularly intrigued by the idea of these three characters who had been holding hands since 1925. They couldn’t let go, bound together forever! I was curious to see how long three dancers could hold onto each other while moving. We developed a physical language within these limitations, encompassing several elements also present within the painting. Working with three dancers dressed in white and three dressed in black, visually there is a strong contrast, which helps to clarify layers of movement. I was searching for a physical language to convey emotional content without there being an obvious narrative.

You were a dancer with Rambert between 1994 – 2000. What has it been like returning to the Company, this time as a choreographer?

It has been a wonderful experience to work with the Company and the Rambert dancers. I’ve been made to feel very welcome by everyone involved. It feels familiar, although I never danced in the beautiful new studios at the Southbank and I don’t know any of the dancers personally. The only people still there after fifteen years are the Technical Director, Malcolm Glanville and ex-dancer turned rehearsal director, Angela Towler, who helped me with the process. Due to the warm and welcoming atmosphere and dancers who are keen to explore and push their boundaries, the creative process became almost pleasurable. I say ‘almost’ since creating work for me involves intense periods full of doubts and questions in which, together with the dancers, I try and find answers. However, for me personally it’s never an easy process.

When dancing with the Company in the 90s I also had several opportunities to choreograph works for the Company, which was wonderful, but being a dancer and working with your colleagues at the same time was quite hard to manage. This time around, returning as a freelance choreographer with much more experience I felt strangely at home.

Rambert brings The 3 Dancers and Other Works to the Theatre Royal Bath from 12 – 14 November 2015. Tickets are available from the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 or online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk