Christopher's Bruce's Rooster comes to Edinburgh
Contemporary dance show set to Rolling Stones back catalogue from the Rambert dance company
Music can make or break a dance work, so the need for good choices weighs heavy on any choreographer.
For Christopher Bruce, whose 1991 work, Rooster forms the centrepiece of Rambert’s autumn tour, the decision was a natural one. The Rolling Stones back catalogue he selected was the soundtrack to his own socialising years earlier – and on re-listening still sounded as fresh as ever.
And so, one of the most popular and accessible works in contemporary dance history was born. Set to tracks such as ‘Paint it Black’ and ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, Rooster is a true crowd-pleaser. Was that what Bruce set out to create at the time?
‘It’s important to me to engage an audience, but I don’t actually set out with the idea of making popular works,’ he says. ‘I try to make something for myself, and combine what I’ve learned about the job of choreographing with what is deeply seated within me.’
Part of a triple-bill with The Castaways by US-born choreographer Barak Marshall and Shobana Jeyasingh’s Terra Incognita, Rooster is as much fun for the dancers performing it, as it is for the audience. Something Bruce was pleased to discover during his recent return to Rambert to teach the work.
‘It’s a great joy to me that at my ancient age I can walk into a studio with these kids who are young enough to be my grandchildren,’ he says, ‘and still have them be interested in what I’m saying and enjoy my movement.’
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Thu 27–Sat 29 Nov.