World renowned Rambert dance company returns this April to present Rooms, a thrilling new live event created by Norwegian choreographer Jo Strømgren, which Theatre Royal Bath audience members can watch as it happens streamed into ticket holders homes from 8^th – 11^th April. A unique mix of dance, theatre and film which features 17 dancers playing 100 characters across 36 scenes.

Following the huge success of Rambert’s inaugural real-time digital livestream, Draw from Within by Wim Vandekeybus – which Theatre Royal Bath audiences enjoyed online in September 2020 – one of the world’s most diverse company of dancers now returns with a new live performance for audiences to watch online. This April’s livestream schedule starts with a 12 noon matinee on 8^th April, prior to 8pm evening performances on 9^th and 10^th April, followed by a performance scheduled for international audiences, but also accessible to UK audiences in the early hours, at 1am, on Sunday 11^th April.

Jo Strømgren combines the skills of a choreographer with those of a cinematographer. He has won prestigious awards for his work as a film director and is also an established playwright. His work spans over 150 productions performed in 64 countries. He is artistic director of Jo Strømgren Kompani and House Choreographer at the Norwegian National Ballet. Jo’s new work for Rambert, Rooms is a witty blend of contrasting domestic scenes, choreographic styles and musical genres.

We all love to glimpse into other lives and the homes they’re lived out in. Rooms invites the audience into wildly different worlds and surprising set-ups as miniature scenes show people living their lives, navigating dilemmas, swerving mishaps and surviving mini-dramas. Exploring themes such as echo chambers and loneliness with Strømgren’s signature dark humour, Rooms is an ambitious dance-theatre-film. It’s sometimes absurd, it’s oftentimes funny, it’s beautiful, it’s peculiar, and occasionally a little bit sad.  Or maybe it’s all perfectly normal.

Speaking about Rooms, Jo Strømgren says: “Diversity is a bouquet of different colours and I love it, but I think the discussion has been limited to certain issues whereas diversity is so vast – diversity of age, diversity of social status, diversity of ethnicity, religion, politics. Rooms offers glimpses through the windows of different people’s lives, to create a kind of mosaic of the cityscape environment. It’s like the unfinished narrative you create in your head as you pass by windows on a bike ride; you get to peek into people’s lives and you realise there is so much going on but you have no idea what is happening or why.”

Commenting on the creation of Rooms, Rambert’s Artistic Director, Benoit Swan Pouffer, says: “Jo has a one-of-a-kind vision and he is a one-of-a-kind creator. It’s very different from what we’ve done before, and that was a deliberate move. I chose him specifically to bring out the diversity of the company, to draw out the singularities of each of the dancers and their own individual characteristics and styles. The fact that Jo is not only a choreographer, he is a playwright, a theatre director, a film director… all these different competencies serve to enrich a work.”

Rambert’s livestream productions blend dance, theatre and cinematography to offer something new and innovative to audiences as well as enabling the company to continue creating and performing during the pandemic. Initially developed as a response to the limitations of the pandemic and the closure of theatres, Rambert plans to make livestreams a permanent feature of future seasons complimenting its live theatre shows and offering variety and increased accessibility to its audiences.

Rambert’s Artistic Director, Benoit Swan Pouffer, explains: “Working through the medium of livestreams brings us a great new opportunity to see the work from the point of view of its creator. With film, we are watching through their gaze, which is different to watching a stage production where the audience can choose where to look to a greater extent.”

Helen Shute, Chief Executive and Executive Producer of Rambert, comments: “‘Going back to normal’ was never a phrase that Rambert was going to embrace. Giving our brilliant and daring artists the opportunity to move the world forward and make awe-inspiring work that is relevant to audiences, not just in content but in how they can experience it now and in the future was always top of the agenda. We believe that great work changes the way people see the world, and inspires them to believe anything is possible and everyone should be able to access that.”

Photo by Camilla Greenwell