While there is little dance on in Manchester over the summer - but do not miss this weekend's Urban Moves International Dance Festival (23 - 25 July) - here's something that looks forward to September, when normal service is resumed, including the Rambert's annual visit to The Lowry...
Rainforest photo (c) Chris Nash![]()
The centrepiece of Rambert Dance’s new mixed programme is a carefully-mounted revival of Merce Cunningham’s RainForest, created in 1968 and danced amid Andy Warhol’s floating silver clouds which the choreographer had seen in a gallery two years earlier.
Warhol apparently wanted to the dancers to perform nude, but Cunningham preferred flesh-coloured leotards, artfully torn by Jasper Johns. David Tudor made a score that conjures the sounds of the jungle through assorted household implements.
All of which is fascinating historical background to a work that still looks startlingly modern, full of unexpected movement and grave stillness, and surprisingly clear in the way it evokes the creatures and birds that its title suggests. The dancers perform with a quiet clarity that makes a lovely tribute to the choreographer, who died last year.
Rainforest photo (c) Chris Nash
