Morrice in the development of Rambert
Norman Morrice- development of Ballet Rambert
He joined Ballet Rambert, Britain's first ballet company, in 1953, where he was valued as an expressive dancer rather than a virtuoso. In 1958, he choreographed his first piece, a modern-dress drama about sibling jealousy called Two Brothers. Set to a score by Ernst von Dohnányi and inspired by the James Dean film East of Eden, its title roles were performed by Morrice and John Chesworth. This was good enough to persuade the company's founder, Marie Rambert, to allow Morrice to choreograph one piece every year.
When Two Brothers was shown at the Jacob's Pillow dance festival in the United States, it impressed American benefactors enough for them to award Morrice a bursary for 1961-62. In the US, he discovered new American dance – from modern ballet to contemporary idioms – and studied Graham Technique at Martha Graham's school.
On his return he became Rambert's principal choreographer and gradually abandoned his performing career. Already in 1959, he had choreographed Hazaña ("Achievement"), in which a man (Chesworth) struggles to erect a heavy cross on a newly built church, encouraged or hindered by other characters. This was followed by A Place in the Desert (1961), Conflicts (1962) and The Travellers (1963). All these pieces were theatrical, breaking new ground with big themes, music that was often contemporary and designs by boldly innovative artists such as Ralph Koltai and Nadine Baylis. Morrice had started as a classical choreographer, but after America, moved into a more contemporary aesthetic.
Ballet Rambert, however, had run into difficulties. The company had started in 1926 as a small creative ensemble, showing the work of new choreographers such as Antony Tudor and Frederick Ashton. But after the war, under pressure from changing tastes and advice from the Arts Council, it had gradually placed more emphasis on scaled-down productions of the popular 19th-century classics, which required a corps de ballet. Despite expanding in size, Rambert had neither sufficient dancers, nor the funding to compete with the Royal Ballet and London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) on their own ground. It was a case of either change or die.
Morrice proposed that Rambert should downsize and return to its creative roots, using young choreographers, designers and composers. He saw that recent visits to London by American companies such as Martha Graham's and Paul Taylor's had sparked a taste for modern dance. He realised that to survive Rambert needed to keep what was best in its repertory – that is, the pieces created by its earlier choreographers, especially Antony Tudor – and combine this with work offering a more contemporary approach.
Once his ideas were accepted, he worked like a madman. "It was an extraordinary achievement to turn a company round like that in six or eight months," says Val Bourne, a friend of Morrice and former director of the Dance Umbrella festival. With a smaller, leaner group of 17 dancers, all with solo status, the company also had to face up to the reality of a smaller audience. From presenting seasons at Sadler's Wells, Rambert now bravely had to adjust to the humbler Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre in Bloomsbury, before gradually building up its following again and returning to Sadler's Wells.
It was truly a momentous change, executed a year before the founding of London Contemporary Dance Theatre. As such, Morrice can said to have been a pioneering architect of British contemporary dance, the first to bring it to the stage.
Named Associate Director, Morrice was largely running Rambert on a daily basis. He invited American choreographers to work with the company, including Anna Sokolow and, most importantly, Glen Tetley, whose mould-breaking fusion of ballet and contemporary technique had already made a mark in the Netherlands. Tetley was to be an important influence, mounting three existing works (including Pierrot Lunaire), and creating Ziggurat, all in the same year (1967). He then created Embrace Tiger and Return to Mountain (1968), Rag Dances (1971) and The Tempest (1979). Meanwhile, Morrice set about encouraging John Chesworth, Jonathan Taylor and Christopher Bruce as in-house choreographers. Of these, Bruce has been the most successful, achieving long-lasting popularity in repertories around the world.
Appointed Associate Artistic Director of Ballet Rambert in 1966, Morrice oversaw its restructuring from a mid-scale ballet company which performed the classics to a small-scale group of soloists who embraced modern dance techniques. He was Artistic Director of Ballet Rambert 1970-1974. He choreographed 18 works for the company.
** Bertram Batell’s Side Show- A children's show 'devised and presented by members of Ballet Rambert under the direction of Norman Morrice'. The publicity billed it as 'a dance fantasia for children of all ages' and 'a spell binding dance fantasia for the entertainment of children of all ages'. The title was an anagram of Ballet Rambert. A preview performance for children was held on 26 March 1970
Works by Morrice
‘1-2-3’ (1968)
‘Blind-sight’ (1969)
‘Two Brothers’ (1958)
‘That is the show’ (1971)