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Dance
By Allen Robertson
Dance didn’t really come on stream at the Barbican until the 1990s when both Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden were shuttered for renovation. Since then dance has leapt forward as a major strand in the venue’s line-up. Dance Umbrella has been crucial – Merce Cunningham’s American company made its first appearance at Umbrella in October 1998, while the highpoint of the company’s regular visits, and a turning point in the Barbican’s commitment to dance, came in 2000 with the stupendous multimedia ‘Biped’.
Upstairs in the main theatre dance continues to prosper. The Brazilian company of Deborah Colker, troupes from Israel, Taiwan, France and the USA lure audiences with innovative programming. The Pit has also provided some marvellously intimate moments, most recently Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre’s ‘Flowerbed’, but also the TO Live Award-winning production of ‘The Maids’.
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Two current projects are dance oriented. Michael Clark is heading towards the culmination of his three-year Stravinsky project and Michael Keegan-Dolan’s Dublin-based Fabulous Beast has just been added to the Barbican’s artistic associate roster in a production deal set to continue through 2009. Dance is now well and truly centred at the Barbican.
Triumph Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s ‘Biped’ (2000).
Disaster Batsheva Dance Company’s chaotic and pretentious ‘Sabotage Baby’ (2001).
Architecture | Art | Classical | Dance | Film | Theatre
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1 comment
I read this article with interest and noted that Mr Glancey did not do his research - Chamberlin, Powell and Bon had a fourth partner; my father, Charles B Greenberg. He, too, was heavily involved in the Barbican. It took over his life from 1960 until he retired from active architecture practice. If Mr Glancey lived in one of the houses on the Barbican site he was in something my father designed. My father's involvement in the firm as a partner is often overlooked because he chose not to have his name added to the name of the firm - he maintained that Chamberlin, Powell, Bon and Greenberg did not have quite the same ring to it that the original name of the firm did. This results in what Mr Glancey did - my father's invisibility.
To say that the firm produced nothing much except Barbican is also incorrect. Towards the end of Barbican's building my father opened a branch of the firm in Honiton, Devon. There they produced a few developments. If Mr Glancey ever wants to increase his knowledge of what my father did in relation to Barbican and other Chamberlin Powell and Bon developments in the South West please get in touch.
Regards,
Judith Farncombe nee Greenberg