It was utterly appropriate that the dance company Rambert unveiled the specially commissioned artworks for its spanking new South Bank HQ last night with an evening of multidisciplinary performances that underlined the function of the building as a working crucible devoted to developing and nurturing new work rather than a static showcase. So as well as the bespoke Rambert-related works by Catherine Yass, Goshka Macuga, Gary Breeze and Abigail Reynolds spread across the studios and rehearsal rooms, guests were treated to a composite of past Merce Cunningham pieces with backdrops and costumes taken from Gerhard Richter’s Cage Paintings (with special permission given by the artist to do so). More performative immediacy was provided by a gloriously voluptuous musical score composed and performed by Radiohead’s drummer Philip Selway, Adem Ilhan and Katherine Mann, AKA the musician Quinta—which included plucking the wires of a piano and playing the bars of a xylophone with a violin bow.
“As the company is all about performing we didn't want it to be just a private view with people walking through—it was wonderful that the Rambert agreed to do this for us,” says the curator Judy Adam, who worked on all the new art commissions and also reveals that since the choreographer’s death in 2009, Rambert is one of the few companies still allowed to perform Cunningham’s work. As the Rambert’s archive display also confirms, there is a long and illustrious history of the company working with leading artists—from Edward Burra to Andy Warhol—and now its new commissions are set to inspire all those using the South Bank building, ranging from schoolchildren and local people attending dance classes to leading figures from the world of dance and performance. Dame Marie Rambert would have undoubtedly approved.