Review: 'Stories' by RB Dance Company, Peacock Theatre

[Sim]

Stories – RB Dance Company 

***** 

23 October 2024 

(photos copyright Aline Gerard)

 

 

The French dance troupe RB Dance Company was formed in 2018 and started its journey by appearing on France’s Got Talent.  From there, it has been onwards and upwards for the company, their apex thus far being Stories, currently on at the Peacock Theatre in London. 

 

Stories is about a young actor called Icarus (who doesn’t reach for the sun and doesn’t get burned in that way) who is famous in films but who is beholden to a controlling director, who does him a big favour and from whose grip he therefore can never escape.  That is the narrative according to the programme, but had I not read it I don’t think it would have been as clear as that.  At only 75 minutes, there is no time to establish characters and relationships.  However, none of this matters much when we are treated to such an original display of dance, music, lighting and set design. 

 

Company founder Romain Rachline Borgeaud is listed as writer, composer, director, choreographer and producer.  He is multi-talented and clearly very imaginative to boot.  According to the programme, his company aims to “bring a new relevance to tap dance, a new place in the world of dance, shaking off the outdated image that has followed the discipline for decades.”  Whether one agrees with this assessment of tap dancing is another matter and not for this article, but the company certainly appeals to an audience of all ages with its combination of tap, contemporary and urban jazz dancing.  The dancers are versatile (being a small troupe, each one of them performs multiple roles and costume changes; there is no cast list for this reason), well disciplined and full of the joys of dance.  They were having a blast up on that stage, dancing and tapping out their delight. Other emotions are clearly depicted and they take us with them wherever they go. The interaction between the dancers is natural and exciting. The staging, lighting and set design are all very clever and effective, evoking a 1930s /40s film noir vibe.  Special kudos to Federica Mugnai (set design) and Alex Hardellet (lighting design) for successfully (and beautifully) taking us to another place in time.  

 

 

The music is mostly sung (the programme does not say by whom, but I assume it is Romain RB), and although the company is French it is in English so matching the words to the steps is easy.  It is a clever blend of lyric and percussive music, just right for this style of dance. There is a good mix of ensemble dancing, solos and pas de deux.  The show moves at quite a lick and never drags.  75 minutes is just the right length.   It finishes leaving you wanting more, and that is exactly what we got for the encore; with drums being lowered from the ceiling a fun finale was had by dancers and audience. 

 

I am clearly in a small minority having never heard of this company before last night.  Judging from the sold out Peacock Theatre I have been in a tap dance wilderness, and am delighted to have come in from the cold by seeing Stories. Highly recommended. 

 

 

Stories is on at the Peacock Theatre in London until 2 November 2024 

 

[Paco]

Romain Rachline Borgeaud is back in this year's "France's got talent", this time with a company of teenagers-dancers. Their performance at the qualification round was amazing. (next time will be semi-finals, I presume on Nov 20th, channel M6).

 

He is clearly a very imaginative artist. Whether his creations can be called "dance" can be discussed (in comparison, McGregor is a purely 100% classical choreographer ;-), but one can't deny that his works are really innovative.

 

Since so far he has toured only one full performance, Stories, but this one is a true masterpiece!