(LA)HORDE Ballet national de Marseille discuss their forthcoming takeover of The Southbank Centre – a multi-sensory collaboration with fellow dance company Rambert.
With decades of creative dynasty behind it, London’s The Southbank Centre remains at the cutting-edge of art and culture. It’s festival showcase in June in collaboration with Little Simz, Meltdown, proved a highlight of the Metropolitan summer, and now the centre begins the autumn strong with a new takeover – this time courtesy of two powerhouse dance companies, Rambert and the revered (LA)HORDE Ballet national de Marseille.
The pair of esteemed troupes have fused their visionary forces for We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon. With a name plucked from a comment that Hollywood star Gene Kelly made to American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the sprawling incentive analyses and tries to answer the role of the body in the modern age of interminable access and continual communication, as well as the evolving role of dance within the context of creative facets, such as film.
Set to be a stunning, must-see takeover of the Royal Festival Hall and wider Southbank Centre, running from 3rd-6th September, it’s an event to be marked in your cultural calendar. To hear more about the takeover, Wonderland connect with (LA)HORDE to discuss the genesis of the idea, collaborating with Rambert, and what to expect from the exhibition.
Read below…
Talk to us about the origins of the (LA) Horde collective?
We met when we were quite young, in art school but also in queer spaces. At first, we just started working together with no bigger plan than supporting each other and questioning the world around us. The idea of the collective came later, when we realised we needed a shared home, an umbrella that would keep us from being put into boxes. That’s how (LA)HORDE was born. What’s exciting is that the collective goes beyond our three individualities, together we speak with one voice, and it also allows us to step back from our own creations, to stay critical and push ourselves further, which is something really liberating.
What have been the most important moments in the growth of the collective?
Obviously, being appointed directors of the Ballet National de Marseille in 2019 was a major moment. We deeply believe that institutional tools can be transformed, and we had this overflowing energy to give back, to share the power we were entrusted with, to create dance and so much more. But at the heart of it, the real turning point was when we first met in 2011, a moment when anything felt possible that our growth truly began. The energy of meeting and sharing in party spaces, in queer spaces, that feeling that together we could create something and connect with the world, that’s what really set everything in motion.
What makes (LA)HORDE stand out from their contemporaries?
We actually think that every point of view is complementary, and that we’re part of a much larger conversation with our peers. We see our work as one tectonic plate among many, all moving and shaping a bigger shared landscape with other artists. It’s the combination of all these artistic visions that allows stories, aesthetic and political movements, and practices to emerge.
Where did this opportunity to do a major site takeover at Southbank Centre come from?
London, and the UK in general, is a very important place for us, both because of its history with dance, but also with music and art more broadly. We’ve been working for a long time to be able to present our work in the UK, and we feel that since Brexit, cultural institutions and the people working in the arts have been making even greater efforts to maintain connections with international artists. This choreographic
exhibition is carried out by two major dance companies, Rambert and the Ballet national de Marseille. And for us, that encounter is really what sparked this large-scale project.
Where did your idea for ‘We should have never walked on the moon’ originate? How did it grow into what it has become?
In 2021, we met Patricia Ward in Los Angeles, Gene Kelly’s widow. It was a very inspiring encoutner, and she told us what Gene had once said to Buzz Aldrin: “We should have never walked on the Moon.” He was shocked that humans had fooled the ground of such a symbolic element. For us, this sentence resonates as a motto for our practice, a way to think differently about history, about gesture, and about
how bodies can make a statement. From there, the exhibition grew into an exploration of alternative narratives and poetic acts that question what we take for granted.
You worked with Rambert for this project. How did that come about? How was the collaborative process?
It all started with an invitation from Rambert’s artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer, with whom we’d already been in conversation about creating something together. We created a program with the dancers of Rambert called Bring Your Own, which included two excerpts of our repertoire pieces (Room With AView and Weather is Sweet) and a new creation, Hop(e)storm. The dancers were incredibly invested in
the creatio process and really committed to taking on and embodying our choreographic language For us, it’s very inspiring to see that permanent companies exist in different parts of the world and can dive into a project like ours. After building that program together, we imagined this collaborative project where those
pieces will be shown alongside many others, such as pieces by Lucinda Childs, Oona Doherty, Cecila Bengolea and François Chaignaud. It will be the third edition of this choreographic exhibition, and the largest one we’ve ever done so far.
What can attendees expect from the takeover? What makes this a unique experience?
In this exhibition, the audience enters into a big loop in which they can keep circling around and discover more than 30 different works. They visitors might not see everything, so they will naturally end up sharing their different individual experiences with one another. They’ll encounter different aesthetics, different generations, films, installations, choreographic works, performances. They’ll move through small and large doors, from backstage areas to public spaces… It’s an unprecedented, living experience, more alive than ever.
What else is to come from (LA) Horde, this year and beyond?
We’re preparing a new creation for 2026, which will be our third with the dancers of Ballet national de Marseille, and we also have plenty of other projects coming up, some of them still under wraps for now.
Rambert and BALLET NATIONAL DE MARSEILLE, under the direction of (LA)HORDE join forces to transform the entire Royal Festival Hall and the wider site of the Southbank Centre with the UK Premiere of We Should Have Never Walked On The Moon( 3 – 6 Sep). This large-scale project is made possible with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
Photography – Theo Giacometti / François Deladerriere / Thierry Hauswald
