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When I told my editor I wanted to interview (La)Horde, a fierce French-based dance collective, he’d just met them at an event in London. “They were my drinking and smoking buddies that evening,” he shot back. “Love them!” It was the swiftest pitch of my career. And when I tell this to Marine Brutti, who is one-third of (La)Horde, she laughs and puts her head in her hands. Still, a rep for being cutting edge and a little bit louche does no harm for a team in international demand.
They are about to unveil the first of several planned collaborations with Rambert, Britain’s leading contemporary dance company, at the Southbank Centre. “It’s essential to bring (La)Horde to Rambert,” declares Benoit Swan Pouffer, the company’s artistic director. “It’s hard to define who they are because they are not necessarily dancers, but their ideas and brain, the way they function and see things, really appeals to me.”
On a sunny afternoon, I sit in on a run-through of Room With a View, originally created for (La)Horde’s own company, Ballet National de Marseille. It’s crazy vigorous – before starting, Rambert’s young dancers pull off their earrings, as if preparing for a ruck. The energy is snarling, whooping, furious, and at close quarters it’s both exhilarating and alarming. Rehearsal director Wins Burnet-Smith, taking notes, has to lift her laptop away from wheeling feet or daring lifts which send dancers hurtling towards the floor. By the end, everyone is drenched.
This is (La)Horde: careening to the boundaries, prodding risky subjects (desire, consent, online isolation). Brutti and Jonathan Debrouwer bonded at art school, and met Arthur Harel on the Paris club scene. Since 2015, the trio’s work – dance or dance-adjacent – has embraced stage shows, music videos and art installations, with several in play at any time. Brutti explains they might not initially know how an idea will manifest: “it feels like magma which will erupt and become a film, or a big performance, or a Madonna show – who knows?” Their touchstone is German choreographer Pina Bausch: “she was like, I’m not interested in how people move, but what moves them.”
(La)Horde frequently work with icons of music, film and fashion – from Spike Jonze to Christine and the Queens or Burberry. After Madonna’s dancers recommended them, the empress of pop messaged: “Want to collaborate?” Brutti insists it’s more than a chance to hang with their heroes.
“We’re very curious human beings, with a wish to understand how things are made,” she says. “With Sam Smith or Madonna, we can get in the room and see how the magic happens. How do they create and think, what is their artistic process? It’s like becoming the magician’s assistant.”
(La)Horde’s own process is uncommon, forging an intense style where classical meets club kid, and where personalities emerge with vivid force. Rambert’s dancers work with many choreographers, but usually a single artist runs the room: does this three-headed creativity bring a different energy? “That’s their strength,” considers Pouffer, “to not have one master, but three very opinionated artists. They complement each other. Practically, they are a very busy bunch, so they can spread the wealth.” For dancer Jau'mair Garland, multiple creatives means “there’s always more ideas, more innovation. The creativity never stops.”
“The greatest gift coming out of a collective is that it puts your ego in the right place,” Brutti suggests. “Not that ego is bad. But for us everything bad that could happen to us, we can discuss it and it’s divided by three, and everything good is celebrated times three. We’ve cracked the code to being quite happy.” She continues, “we have very different sensitivities – but because we’ve been living our lives together for 15 years, we know how to formulate an idea and follow it organically. There is nothing vertical in what we do – we are creating, sharing, building something together. In the end, I have no clue what the recipe is. We engage and exchange, and this is what comes out.”
Bring Your Own, their triple bill with Rambert, includes two pieces previously performed by Ballet National de Marseille and opens with Hop(e)storm, a new piece created with Rambert’s dancers – Garland says they could contribute all kinds of ideas and follow them through – seeing how Lindy Hop might meet rave. An intimacy coordinator also joined the process, because (La)Horde pushes performers towards challenging places – physically but also emotionally. “They are exploring consent, sexuality,” says Pouffer. “Their work can be out there but there is always a reason.”
Room With a View was partly inspired by the gilets jaune (yellow vest) protests that swept France in 2018-20. “We’re interested in how different groups of people connect to the material,” says Brutti. “They may be angry or upset about some things, but also celebrate others. If you think about the collapse of climate, for example, there is something to be angry about. But the collapse of patriarchy is something to be celebrated. We have so much contradictory information every day, so many different points of view – this is the energy of now.”
Room… took shape during lockdown – the pent-up emotion, suggests dancer Max Day, “propelled this impactful, daring, challenging piece.” The challenge was palpable during the rehearsal run, which began with Burnet-Smith telling the dancers, “stay safe, stay vigilant, keep calm.” Is it as gruelling as it looks? “A lot of people have moments where they truly exhaust themselves,” Day admits.” But there’s a beautiful thing about how this resembles how our community can function.” As Garland says, “you’re literally leaning on people, trying to get that last bit of energy just to finish the piece strong.”
(La)Horde have just announced their next collab with Rambert – a takeover of the Royal Festival Hall in September, called We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon. For 15 years, the trio have pursued bold ideas and provocative work. Does Brutti hope they will continue working together for decades to come? “Who knows what will happen to us, honestly,” she says. “Every time I think [we’re finished], a new project pops up.” She remembers her mum’s childhood warning, “‘Marine, your arms are not big enough to embrace the world!’ But I can’t help it, it’s a way of being. Jonathan, Arthur and I, we are in conversation with the world.”
Rambert x (LA)HORDE: Bring Your Own is at Southbank from 7–10 May, and We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon from 3–6 September.
