Review: ROOMS, Rambert Dance Company & Birmingham Hippodrome (Online)
Rooms is the fantastic, fast-paced dance film that gives us a glimpse into an urban world. Rambert’s seventeen dancers transport us through various different worlds and set-ups that, in an hour, takes us on a journey that intrigues and inspires those who enjoy watching dance. Norwegian choreographer Jo Stroemgren has envisions a world that is so likeable; a world that presents all human life as we know it.
The landscape in which Rooms sits is incredibly colourful and the seventeen dancers each create the bold and unforgettable 100 characters etched into the wallpaper of the rooms. There is a great play with the fluidity and pace of contemporary dance as well as the response to touch that is so beautiful as it unfolds. It isn’t a piece that sits along a linear pathway, it ducks and dives between many different dynamics that makes for an engaging watch.
Rooms has been choreographed to bring worlds, very distinctly different from one another, to life. There are some parts that are notably quite distracting but doesn’t in fact lose the main narrative of bringing these characters in 36 scenes to life. Presenting this through a dance film is extremely effective and enables the audience to witness every single breath of the movement pattern that is played on.
Rambert show why it is innovative and inspiring in its way of presenting dance for a modern audience.
Thrilling, engaging and inspiring.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Emmie Newitt
Rooms is available to watch via digital stream thanks to a partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome until 10 April. You can book your stream tickets for £10 here.
