Review: RAMBERT x (LA)HORDE: BRING YOUR OWN, Southbank Centre
Photo credit: Hugo Glendinning
In Bring Your Own, Rambert joins forces with radical French collective (LA)HORDE for a thrilling triple bill that brings the politics of the body to the club floor. Known for their confrontational, collaborative approach to dance and digital culture, (LA)HORDE pushes boundaries, and here, Rambert’s dancers rise fully to the challenge. This is not a show that holds your hand. It dives headfirst into themes of intimacy, identity, freedom, and connection, delivered with sweat, swagger and a heavy bassline.
The night opens with Hop(e)storm, a reimagining of the social dance Lindy Hop, only here, it’s transported to a gritty, rave, pulsing with darker beats and attitude. Commissioned specifically for Rambert, the piece is all about partnership and momentum: bodies flung into space and caught again, dancers using each other’s weight and resistance to generate flow and rhythm. It’s impossible to miss the satisfaction in the shared motion. This is dance that simply can’t exist without others. Costumed in streetwear and club gear, the dancers move with a sense of individual style that still clicks into tight ensemble work. There’s something liberating about watching this old-school form dressed in new skin, still carrying its roots of community and joy, but warped through a rawer, moodier lens.
The second piece, Weather Is Sweet, inspired by the LA club scene, leans into darker, more intimate territory. Exploring themes of sex-positivity and consent, it unfolds like a series of fragmented encounters, some tender, some provocative, some almost confrontational. The effect is voyeuristic, placing the audience as observers in the shadows of a club or backroom. Choreographically, it’s bold, at times explicit, but the emotional chemistry between dancers sometimes struggles to break through the piece’s technical demands. That said, when moments of humour and irreverence are allowed in, such as dancers dribbling one another’s backsides like basketballs, the work opens up. The more expressively the dancers surrender to the chaos, the stronger the connection becomes.
Following the interval, A Room With a View closes the night with a visceral, unrelenting energy. Described as a provocation to ask, “What do I care about?”, this is the most emotionally charged piece of the evening. The dancers give everything; sweat, breath, commitment—in a display of ferocity that swerves between collective ecstasy and individual dissociation. The pace is relentless, sometimes trance-like, and the choreography captures that blur between intensity and numbness, aggression and bliss. Several standout performances emerge in the revolving cast: Naya Lovell is endlessly watchable, while Siang Huang has a bold attitude and sharp presence.
All together, Bring Your Own is an invitation to immerse: in movement, in sound, in shared physical experience. It’s a sweat-soaked, neon-lit celebration of dance as escape, defiance and release. Rambert and (LA)HORDE have created a reminder that in uncertain times, bodies still speak, and sometimes, they scream.
**** Four stars
Reviewed by: Stephanie Osztreicher
