Director: Ross McKim MA PhD NBS (IDP) Patrons: Lady Anya Sainsbury CBE Robert Cohan CBE Prospectus 2 About Us Rambert School, is recognised internationally as one of the small group of first-level professional dance schools of the world. In order to remain so, and to support its students (given the demands they must confront), Rambert School provides a contained, bordered and protected environment through which an unusual and intense level of energy and professionalism is created, respected, treasured and sustained. “Rambert School is a place of education and training in Ballet, Contemporary Dance and Choreography. It seeks to cause or allow each student to achieve his or her unique potential personally and professionally. It encourages learning, reflection, research and creative discovery. Through these processes, as they relate to performance dance, all those at the school are provided with the opportunity to develop their vision, awareness, knowledge and insight into the world and the self. They may thus advance in terms of their art form and their lives.” Principal and Artistic Director Dr Ross McKim MA PhD NBS (IDP) Conservatoire for Dance and Drama Clifton Lodge, St Margaret’s Drive, Twickenham TW1 1QN Telephone: 020 8892 9960 Fax: 020 8892 8090 Mail: [email protected] www.rambertschool.org.uk 3 History Marie Rambert began teaching in London in 1919. In her autobiography she wrote, “In 1920 I collected the various pupils I had into a class and began teaching professionally.” This was the beginning of Rambert School which, in these early days, was based at Notting Hill Gate. Out of it grew Rambert Dance Company. The School began as it was to go on. It was, and remains, a place of dance innovation based on a sound technical training. While encouraging new choreography Rambert records, “[I] taught by insisting on the classical line with all my might.” Individuality was, as it is now, prized and encouraged. Rambert famously said her School was not to be “a sausage factory”. It has always been a place that fostered personal creativity, integrity, intuition, perhaps even quirkiness, and certainly work of the highest quality. The emphasis on individuality and innovation naturally finds expression in choreography. This has been, during most of its history, a principal concern at the School. Out of Rambert School have come a number of the most significant of British Choreographers such as Frederick Ashton, Antony Tudor and Christopher Bruce. Graduates of the present School, like Thomas Noone, Ana Watkins, Mark Bruce, Antonia Graves, Theo Clinkard and Darren Ellis, continue to form their own companies and win choreographic awards. Perhaps related to the fact that it has tended to be a place of innovation the School has, on a number of occasions, reinvented itself. On each occasion it has developed a distinct character while remaining within the Rambert tradition. The creation of the present incarnation of Rambert School was aided by the fact that by the late 1970s Ballet Rambert found it had grown away from what had been its School in a number of senses. The Company, and its supporters, thus founded what grew into the present School at Twickenham. There were indeed, for a while at this time, three schools operating under the name “Rambert”. Two merged and the third disbanded leaving only the Rambert School of today. The School was formed within the West London Institute of Higher Education which was later subsumed into Brunel University. In 2003, for artistic, educational and financial reasons the School established its independence from Brunel University. Deliberately remaining small the School, overall, is one of the world’s great centres of professional dance education and training. 4 5 Marie Rambert Photographed by Lord Snowdon Richmond and Twickenham Rambert School is located on the edge of London in one of its most beautiful corners, a minute’s walk from the River Thames within an area called Twickenham. The School has chosen to remain in the special green and leafy part of London because the environment has proven, over some twenty years, to be ideal for dance training. Here the students, while with access to London, can live close to the School. They can thus spend more time in the studios and less time and money on travelling. They are able to work in the studios during the evenings and on weekends. This is crucially important because dancers cannot practise at home. They can only, to a very limited extent, work on choreography at home. 6 London The location of Rambert School provides the perfect balance between quietness and security, and the hustle and bustle of London just a short trip away. London, being one of the greatest cities in the world, offers high-quality dance, drama and music performances on an almost daily basis. Importantly, London is also the base for most major English dance companies. Students have the chance to attend their company classes, workshops and auditions. Many theatres, galleries, historical sights and dance studios offer reduced-rate tickets for students. Rambert School is registered with Transport for London (TfL) which offers Student Photocards for savings of up to 30% on travel via rail, bus and tube. 7 Courses 8 FD/BA (Hons) Ballet and Contemporary Dance (Validated by the University of Kent) The heart, root and centre of the School is its dance technical training. The full title of the School is Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, with the terms “Ballet” and “Contemporary” listed in this order because it is alphabetical. At Rambert School both these major genres of western theatrical dance are treated equally and as major studies. Neither is undertaken largely or only to supplement the other. This approach, which is unique in the UK, is adopted because – as the record of former students of the School shows – it provides young dance artists with an education and training that allows them, with great success, to enter, enjoy and improve the professional dance job market of today. Focus is on the processes of learning and applying a progressively sophisticated body of dance knowledge, understanding and related skills, so that students are able to dance Ballet and Contemporary Dance to at least a professional level and, in many cases, well beyond that. Other aspects of the programme either derive from or support this central process. The study of choreography within the courses is grounded in the process of learning to dance and in a choreographer’s expertise as a dancer. In Critical Studies students study a range of relevant subject areas which enhance and supplement their physical work in the studio. All students are brought to a graduate standard in the use of traditional or conventional academic skills and conventions. 9 10 FD/BA (Hons) Ballet and Contemporary Dance Principal Subject Areas Ballet Dance Improvisation Pas De Deux Contemporary Solos Classical Solos Music Pointe Coaching Ballet Repertoire Body Maintenance/Biomechanics Choreography Critical Studies Contemporary Dance Performance Performance There are four performance periods each year, held in the Anya Linden Studio Theatre. Additional performances are given in other theatres such as the Linbury Studio Theatre within the Royal Opera House and the Lilian Baylis Studio at Sadler’s Wells. Two in-house performance weeks, and the ‘Design for Dance’ Season (with Central St Martins College of Art), consists entirely of student works. Other performances are comprised of student work and pieces choreographed by respected members of the profession. Entry Requirements To qualify for entry, all students must be 16 or over by 1st September in the year they wish to start. Candidates who are successful at audition show their talent in varying ways and come from various backgrounds. Female applicants do not need to have passed exams, but should usually be at an intermediate level of Ballet, to include Pointe work. Male applicants will usually have completed a minimum of one year of training in Ballet and/or Contemporary Dance, although typically will have more training, to include the vocabulary of intermediate ballet. For all applicants, prior experience of Contemporary Dance is not essential, however it is always beneficial. 11 Postgraduate Study 12 MA in Advanced Dance Performance with Specialisation in Ritual and Related Somatic (Chi) Studies (Validated by the University of Kent) The MA provides for those with intellectual ambition and research interests. Of equal significance, the programme, from a vocational perspective, develops dancers in terms of their technical skills, performance skills and expressivity. Through a year of study and practice, the programme combines dance performance improvement with intellectual expansion and research accomplishment. Ritual Danced ritual is understood within the following context of hypothetical thought: There exists a distinct category of experience identified as “the numinous” (Otto, R, 1958). This, in the past and at present, has been understood as the experience of the divine. This experience is available to individuals who do not believe in conventional notions of God or of Gods as well as to those who may. It is available even if such divinity is absolutely non-existent. Such experience is, in C. G. Jung’s terms ‘psychically hygienic’ (Jung, C. G. Collected Works, Vol 10 p 532). Ritual is understood here as a process through which such experience can be accessed as a regular and devised practice. The Performance Company (Moving Visions Dance Theatre) Participants as a company, rehearse, produce and perform danced ritual or pararitual events. Performance venues will include theatres and cathedrals. The work is informed by, and informs, a study of research and scholarship. 13 14 Significant experiments in the creation of modern theatrical ritual are of concern like those of Jerzy Grotowski, Peter Brook, Antonin Artaud and their schools. The nature of religious and mystical experience and the relation of this to ritual is examined.