August 29, 2025 |
At the Southbank Centre from September 3 to 6, the foyers, terraces, stairwells and stages will be filled with dancers, DJs and drifting crowds. A limousine will be parked in the middle of it all. The project is called We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon – a sprawling “choreographic exhibition” that explores “the role of the body in a post-internet age of infinite information, communication and expression” created by Rambert and (LA)HORDE Ballet National de Marseille, in partnership with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
The title itself comes from Gene Kelly – his famous lament to Buzz Aldrin after the Moon landing: “We should have never walked on the Moon.” For (LA)HORDE, it becomes a provocation: what does it mean to move, to trespass, to leave traces on fragile ground?
For Aaron Wright, Southbank Centre’s head of performance and dance, the project is unlike anything the building has seen. “We’ve built really good relationships with both Rambert and (LA)HORDE,” he says. “Rambert is literally across the road from us, and with (LA)HORDE, we had their first major UK stage presentation at Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2024. It was totally sold out. We’d been talking about bringing them back, and when Benoit [Swan Pouffer] at Rambert mentioned they were already in conversation with (LA)HORDE, we thought, okay, well, we definitely want in on this.”
The ambition was not just to host a performance, but to transform the site itself. “We’d worked with Marina Abramović at the end of 2023, where she curated ten artists performing across unusual spaces in Queen Elizabeth Hall,” Wright recalls. “Audiences loved moving around the building, leading their own journeys. From that, we wanted to go further – not just one building, but the entire Southbank Centre. As far as we’re aware, in living memory at least, that’s never been done.”
(LA)HORDE call this format a “choreographic exhibition”. “We wanted to bring together over 30 different works of different aesthetics and formats,” they explain. “The pieces presented include films, installation and choreographic works from our repertoire, but also pieces by invited artists who are part of Ballet National de Marseille’s repertoire such as Lucinda Childs, Oona Doherty, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea.”
It is the third edition of their exhibition series, but the first time on this scale – and the first time Rambert dancers have joined Ballet national de Marseille on equal footing. “Some of our works will be performed by a mixed cast, bringing together different aesthetics and generations,” (LA)HORDE say.
For them, the format reflects the way they see dance itself. “We never decided on one path, so we decided to embrace them all. This exhibition reflects our collective approach, which has always been shapeshifting and multidisciplinary. It brings together the entirety of our creations within a single framework.”
Among the many works is Riverstage Duet, created by Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer. What began outdoors over the summer has been reimagined for this new context. “It was about a relationship – all kinds of relationships,” Pouffer explains. “The conversation we have between one another physically, in terms of how you converse and communicate through your body. We all have a body. We all live in a body. So I wanted to make sure it was open enough that everybody can get their own story when they see the work.”
Casting is fluid. “It’s going to be performed with two men, but this morning we did it with one male and one female. I’m contemplating doing it with two women. The body tells different stories. It’s a universal language.”
What matters most to him is not the message but its resonance. “It may contrast with what you’ve seen before and after, because it’s sandwiched between other work. For me, it was to be distinctive but also to add to the whole experience.”
That multiplicity runs through the costumes, designed by Salomé Poloudenny. “It’s a mix of a lot of different creations, so each performance had its own directions and inspirations,” she says. “But overall, I have always been inspired by people. The goal is to bring to the stage some kind of social mirror and ask people to wonder about what is happening in the world – through clothes and fashion somehow as well.”
For the limo sequence, she turned to Exactitudes, a photographic archive of archetypes and subcultures by Ari Versluis and writer Ellie Uyttenbroek. “It’s about personas, but each keeps their own individuality. That’s also a main goal: to respect individuality and create something collective at the same time.”
Everyday clothes are altered to move like costumes. “A dancer cannot flip their legs with denim Levi’s jeans. So there is a lot of alteration to transform the clothes and make them happen without the audience knowing. It’s a hidden process.”
For Serge Laurent, director of dance and cultural programs at Van Cleef & Arpels, projects like this are part of a lineage. “There is such a long history between the maison and the field of dance,” he says. “When we launched Dance Reflections in 2020, the idea was to continue writing that story.” That commitment now spans 70 partners across 17 countries. “Contemporary dance is not a style, it’s a concept – a concept of freedom that allows artists to emancipate themselves from rules.”
We Should Have Never Walked on the Moon, he says, embodies that spirit. “It’s a way to approach dance in a different form. You invite people to a journey in a space – like a living exhibition. As an audience, you are free. You are free like when you travel.”
For Wright, what makes the piece resonate is how it questions dance itself. “(LA)HORDE’s big interest is how movement has changed in response to digital culture – the influence of TikTok, Grand Theft Auto, avatars, even pornography. They scour the internet looking for interesting movement, then lift it and put it into shows. In a way, it becomes like a collage. That’s controversial because it questions authorship. Can anyone own a dance move when it’s circulated so quickly online?”
And yet, he argues, this is exactly what makes it urgent. “If we looked at dance styles from the last 200 years, most people could tell if something was from the 18th century. We still create new movements that make us go, ah, that is of this moment. That’s why I find dance so fascinating. It poses questions about sexuality, consent, how we perform our bodies. I think the piece doesn’t take a side. It asks more questions than it answers.”
Ultimately, what the audience encounters is part performance, part party. “There’s certainly something about energy and vibe,” Wright says. “Sometimes in a dance show, the music’s pumping, the dancers are going for it, and you’re just sitting in your seat. This starts to bridge the gap with the spaces where we normally experience dance – nightclubs, social spaces. It gives permission to the audience to respond in their own way. There are slightly less rules.”
That sense of freedom runs through every layer of the project. For (LA)HORDE, it’s about multiplicity. For Pouffer, it’s about universality. For Poloudenny, individuality within collectivity. For Laurent, freedom as the essence of contemporary dance. For Wright, the urgency of questioning how we move now.
At the Southbank Centre, those voices collide into a single living, moving exhibition. Kelly’s lament – “We should have never walked on the Moon” – is less an elegy than a dare: to step, to dance, to move together, even if we don’t yet know what the footprints will mean.
Photography courtesy of Southbank Centre.
