How does a 100-year-old dance company face the 21st century? For Rambert\u2019s Benoit Swan Pouffer the answer is combining innovation with popular adaptations such as the Brummie crime saga<\/p>\n
On 15 June 1926, the Lyric theatre in Hammersmith played host to \u201can engaging little ballet\u201d called A Tragedy of Fashion, a \u201cchic trifle\u201d according to the press, that had been first concocted round a west London dinner table. Yet it turned out to be a momentous moment in the course of British dance. The show was produced by Marie Rambert, a Polish \u00e9migr\u00e9 who had performed with Diaghilev\u2019s Ballets Russes, and it was the beginnings of a dance company that\u2019s still going strong 100 years later.<\/p>\n
Marie Rambert was a force of nature. She has been called \u201can inspired talent spotter and legendary bully\u201d, with \u201cwit, taste and a sharp instinct for trends\u201d, and with her nascent company (first known as the Marie Rambert Dancers, then Ballet Club, then Ballet Rambert), she kindled the talents of Britain\u2019s most influential choreographers of the age, including Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor. \u201cThis woman was a pioneer,\u201d says the company\u2019s current artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer. \u201cShe was really ahead of her time.\u201d Nonetheless, fast-forward 100 years and Marie Rambert wouldn\u2019t recognise the company that still bears her name, written in capitals down the side of a sleek building just behind the National Theatre, on London\u2019s South Bank.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/a26bcc06fc7effe2eb6db22dcfae2d9f359e103d\/469_0_5787_4629\/master\/5787.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=a75e2d41dc4a227c8a5d08c53b6167cb\" "\\"\u2018Peaky")
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