Review: We Should Never Have Walked On The Moon, Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre truly embraces the takeover – with the scale of the venue and the world-class concert halls it holds, it is the perfect setting. So it’s a real treat to finally experience one for myself. The show’s namesake quote, “We should never have walked on the moon”, is attributed to Gene Kelly, who supposedly said it to Buzz Aldrin, and whilst there wasn’t a spacesuit in sight tonight, there were moments when I felt like I’d been taken to another world. 

The event sees the Southbank’s neighbours, Rambert and Marseille-based dance company, (LA)HORDE come together, filling the Southbank Centre with dancers, installations and films. As with any ‘choose your own adventure’ style performance, there’s always some trepidation: will I find things I like? Will I miss anything? And on the whole, my experience was enjoyable and engaging.

The absolute highlight is entering the Royal Festival Hall, expecting to find a seat in the stalls, only to be led onto the empty stage. Surprisingly, a film installation runs on a huge screen suspended amongst the stalls. Just at the point of my thinking I’d move on, the organ blasted into life behind us and two dancers made their way into the stalls: a reversal of positions as we watched them from our spots on stage, which felt like a real privilege. Similar opportunities offer themselves up across the site.

Another highlight is Hop(e)storm by (LA)HORDE. This 15-minute performance in the Purcell Room is a real treat. What starts as an aggressive dance, with fairly typical music of the contemporary dance genre, turns into a mash-up of a swing dance, a rave and a ceilidh, with pounding music to accompany the bodies flying around the stage. Repetitions of the first two chords of Elvis’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ become more and more threatening as they are repeated, and the entire room was on tenterhooks. The inevitable roar of applause was the loudest of the night. 

Film installations are scattered around the event, but the best by far is Ghosts set in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Marseille, featuring (LA)Horde dancers and music by Rone. Taking place in the Gallery after the visitors have left, it is a funny, clever and beautiful piece that I was tempted to watch again as it restarted on its eight-minute loop, but there was too much to see to indulge myself! 

Whilst there are serious, artistic and challenging moments across the site, there is also pure fun and silliness in many of the performances. Grime Ballet does what it says on the tin in the most extraordinary way, and catching a bit of Deep Stream on a foyer on the 5th floor is challenging and bizarre, but with moments of humour that caught us all unawares.

My only disappointment was the finale. Although we were reassured we would be led to the location of the finale, I did wonder if I’d missed something in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Stewards told the crowd I was in that it was over, blocking access to the Hall and telling us to leave despite the music we could still hear. 

Despite my night ending on a slightly flat note, I had some truly incredible experiences as part of this event. There’s no getting away from the fact that there are some performances that won’t tickle your fancy. But in the hands of Rambert, (LA) HORDE and the Southbank Centre, it feels like a safe space to push your boundaries, and find moments of such beauty and surprise that they take your breath away.

(LA) HORDE: Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer, Arthur Harel, Cécilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, Lucinda Childs & Oona Doherty
Rambert: Benoit Swan Pouffer

We Should Never Have Walked on the Moon takes over the Southbank Centre
until Saturday 6 September.