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REVIEW: Ballet Rambert@Theatre Royal

0-Rambert-LogoBallet Rambert

The 3 Dancers

Theatre Royal

Brighton

Ballet Rambert’s current tour has rocked up at the Theatre Royal bringing their series of new accessible interesting and emotionally diverse dance to lovers of modern expressive and creative movement and music.

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Patricia Okenwa, a dancer with Rambert since 2004, is creating her first work for the main repertoire of the company. Hydrargyrum ( an ancient name for mercury) opened the night with sharp, tense and vibrant interactions that shivered, melted, pooled and changed into something smoother and softer, a three part piece of meditations on the nature of group, support, rejection, acceptance and fear it challenged as much as it reassured and the spikey opening energy kept the narrative thrust of this piece vibrant through it’s organic changes and steps down of pace and focus. The staging for this, with a huge Mylar mirror reflecting first the theatre back at itself as it turned  360 degrees, changing lighting, reflection and the focus of the piece. The house loved it, my companion Grace, her first time at a Rambert dance was full of thought and entertained.


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Another triple scene dance Transfigured Night took us into a romantic, emotional tight piece of lovers acting, changing and reacting to changes in their lives.  Surprisingly full of narrative for a Rambert piece this emotionally fraught story of lovers started with a fraught fearful frantic full company dance with the principals dancing out their narratives the middle piece idealised dreaming of acceptance and perfection was simply wonderful and- for me- the highlight of the evening with local dancer Liam Francis gymnastically lithe and bringing an electric energy to the stage, finishing up with the narrative of the real, the compromise, the acceptance of people being not perfect. The dancers, staging and lighting conspired to grip the attention of the audience and silenced us into rapt attention.  Two-time Olivier-award winning choreographer Kim Brandstrup deserves commendation for this intense emotionally visceral piece.

The final piece , The 3 dancers with choreography from Didy Veldman after a commission from Rambert to design a piece based around Picasso’s traumatic and enigmatic painting ‘The Three Dancers’  this tense lyrical piece dancing with precision and verve the Rambert team finished off the evening with an engaging and thoughtful piece. Veldman’s trademark depth of character and almost obsessive procession of tiny movements brings the intimacy of this piece directly to the fore. This is all about the personal, the interactions, the tension of the lovers portrayed by Picasso, and also his own relationships with his wife, lovers and dance itself. The monochromatic design focuses the eye. Plunging mirrored shard descend and separate the piece. The lighting follows the action; the lovers entwine and set off the dynamic urgent joining, bonding and reforming of the trio’s. Its fluid dynamics locked step with the clustered, harmonically intense music written by Elena Kats-Chernin to give us a perfect piece of contemporary dance which showed Rambert off and allowed the audience, both dedicated fans and first timers to find emotional traction in the intimacy of this intimate, sensual dance.

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Ballet Rambert are the premier contemporary dance company in the UK bringing an electric and engaging series of dance, some specially commissioned to the stage of the theatre Royal. Rambert are accessible and allow people to enjoy dance and all its emotional complexity on their own terms, just offering up talented dancers and musicians, insightful choreographers and designers who do their best to highlight the movement and meaning in the dance.

Rambert are at the Theatre Royal until Saturday 19th, with an extra matinee today (Thu for 1:30pm)

This is an excellent show and one worth catching if you’ve an interest in contemporary dance but Rambert also reward the first timer with their accessible dance and the audience at the Theatre royal left buzzing after this energetic thrilling evening.

See more about Ballet Rambert here:

 

 

fiveFilms4freedom announce first global LGBT influencers list

fiveFilms4freedom is the world’s first global, digital, LGBT campaign promoted through the British Council’s network in more than 60 countries and regions around the globe, reaching audiences across the Americas, China, India, Israel, Mexico, Ukraine and to the Far East.

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For the second year fiveFilms4freedom have announced a list of global LGBT influencers. These 33 people are being recognised for their work to support and promote LGBT rights and equality around the world.

The list includes:

♦ Geng Le, founder of China’s leading LGBT web portal and social media app Blued, which has 27 million users. Geng uses his platform to raise awareness of HIV prevention, workplace protection for LGBT people and campaigns for recognition of same sex marriage.

♦ Mahmoud Hassino, who started the first Syrian LGBT online magazine Mawaleh, and works at a Berlin-based refuge for LGBTI refugees.

♦ Bilge Tas, the director and co-founder of Pink Life QueerFest in Ankara, Turkey.

♦ Tiffany Kagure Mugo, co-founder and curator of HOLAA!, an online Pan Africanist Womanist hub that allows women to speak about their sexuality.

♦ HiaMyat Tun and Billy Stewart, the co-founders of &PROUD, the first LGBT film festival in Yangon, Myanmar. It was established to bring together the LGBT community in Myanmar and create greater awareness of issues facing LGBT communities across Asia.

♦ Dr Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) – a human rights network raising awareness of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression in Uganda. Today the network comprises 18 LGBTI organisations. Dr Mugisha was also a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee in 2014.

To see full Global List for 2016, click here:

 

New support services for armed forces and their families announced

Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans welcome news, announced in yesterdays budget that Samaritans will offer armed forces staff and their families tailor-made confidential support services round the clock, wherever they are in the world.

Samaritans logo

The charity will receive £3.5m over 3 years to develop a national programme that helps military personnel, veterans and their loved ones identify when someone may need emotional support, and access Samaritans’ services more easily, whether they are in the UK or stationed overseas.

The money is coming from what’s known as the LIBOR fund, following the rate-fixing issue, where fines paid by the banks are passed on to the voluntary sector.

There will be 3 elements to the national programme:

♦  Building on Samaritans’ existing digital technology to offer service men and women at home and abroad access to confidential support by text, email and instant messaging

♦  Online training for military personnel and their families in listening skills, giving them the confidence and expertise to encourage each other to open up when life is tough

♦  Face to face training to create listening volunteers within the forces, available night and day for colleagues who need to talk about difficult thoughts or feelings

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK, and of men and women aged 20-34. For men who are 24 or younger and have left the armed forces, the risk of them taking their own lives is between 2 and 3 three times higher than men the same age who haven’t served in the military.*

Daniel Cheesman
Daniel Cheesman

Director of Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans, Daniel Cheesman, welcomed the Chancellor’s announcement, saying: “We rely on men and women in the armed forces to put their lives on the line to keep us safe. With this funding, Samaritans can share its expertise with the military so that those serving or leaving the forces and their families are better equipped to deal with their unique circumstances, as well as the day to day struggles that we all face.

“Brighton and Hove Samaritans are already here for anyone who is struggling, including those in the military. This funding will enable Samaritans nationally to share their expertise and give service men and women vital skills in listening and supporting others that they can use in their careers and later in their civilian lives.”

Samaritans has a track record in tailoring its services to the needs of those who may be more at risk of taking their own lives. It has developed a listening scheme in prisons, which is now in its 25th year, where inmates are trained in listening skills and offer emotional support to prisoners finding it difficult to cope. Volunteers are actively involved in training listeners in Lewes prison, for example.

Since 2010 Samaritans has been working with Network Rail and the wider rail industry’s 200,000 staff to develop online and face to face training in the skills needed to identify anyone who may be vulnerable, keep them safe, and direct them to sources of support such as Samaritans.

If you want to talk to the Samaritans telephone: 01273 772277

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