News: Rambert looks to the future with a note from the past
At the end of September Rambert Dance Company’s Artistic Director, Mark Baldwin, was joined by all the former artistic directors of the Company or their representatives, Chief Executive Nadia Stern and former Company dancers to bury a time capsule in its new purpose-built headquarters on London’s South Bank.
This event marks another step in Rambert’s development, as the Company prepares to move to brand new premises in Autumn 2013, but also celebrates the contribution of everyone who has made Rambert the company it is today.
Items included in the time capsule include a lock of Marie Rambert’s hair, Equity cards for Angela and David Ellis (Rambert’s daughter and her husband, both active within the Company), a favourite pair of former Artistic Director Christopher Bruce’s dance shoes, as well as programmes, personal correspondence and photographs.
Current Rambert dancers have also contributed several items to represent their daily working life – toe tape, a foot roller, a shaker for protein-based food supplement and a packet of Jelly Snakes.
The new building, in which the time capsule is being buried, will be an accessible world-class facility comprising three large dance studios, set and costume workshops, offices and archive. The Rambert Capsule will be registered with the International Time Capsule Society, with a request that it is not opened for at least 50 years.
The contents have been curated by CEO Rambert Dance Company, Nadia Stern who says,
‘Rambert has an excellent archive which charts the official side of the work of the Company, so we wanted our time capsule to contain records and objects that give a sense of what everyday Company life is like. We also wanted to celebrate the contribution of the Company’s seven artistic directors, five of whom we have gathered together to mark this occasion with us.’