Rambert and (LA)HORDE Ballet national de Marseille’s latest collaboration transforms the Southbank Centre into an immersive dancescape of limousines, live baptisms, and complete audience freedom.
Two iconic dance companies, a cast of eighty performers, and a stretch limousine are about to take over the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. A genre-defying collaboration between London-based dance company Rambert and (LA)HORDE Ballet national de Marseille, WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON is set to be big, bold, and unique.
“There’s something thrilling about constantly reinventing this iconic seventy-five-year-old institution,” says Aaron Wright, head of performance and dance at the Southbank Centre. “WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON will transform the space. We’re literally parking a stretch limo on our riverside terrace, we’ll have “baptisms” in the Royal Box of the Royal Festival Hall, and a very strange car driving around the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It keeps things fresh!”
While 2026 marks the Royal Festival Hall’s seventy-fifth anniversary and Rambert’s one-hundredth, both share a keen desire to keep evolving. “I love that Rambert and (LA)HORDE are willing to take big, bold risks. (LA)HORDE aren’t your average choreographers — they mine the internet for inspiration and rework movement that they find, Wright tells me. “For Rambert to choose to work with a company ripping up the rulebook in such a way is very inspiring.”
That eagerness to keep pushing boundaries suits Rambert’s Artistic Director, Benoit Swan Pouffer. “What we believe here at Rambert is to collaborate and create work that is unique and that challenges the audience — that makes them grow and think,” he explains. “It was making sense for our company to collaborate with (LA)HORDE. They do things and you’re like, WHAT! There’s always a statement behind their work, and I appreciate that.”
It is not the first time the two companies have joined forces, having previously collaborated on Bring Your Own, performed in May this year. But WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER brings something different; as an immersive promenade-style work, audiences are free to roam the venue, encountering dance as they go and creating their own experience. “It’s a chance for discovery as well,” says Pouffer. “You’ll see things happening in nooks and crannies. And it’s not just dance; there’ll be projections, DJs, artwork, installations…”
That eclectic, multidisciplinary approach is woven throughout WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER, which features excerpts of previous works, adaptations and new creations, including pieces from choreographers Lucinda Childs, Oona Doherty, Cecila Bengolea, and François Chaignaud, as well as a brand-new duet by Pouffer, entitled Us. “It’s like a patchwork of who we are as companies,” he explains.
As a work that seeks to examine the role of the body in our post-internet age of endless information, the multiplicity of choice in WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER is, in its own way, a reflection of the relentless supply of content we are able to access. Yet here, an intention for real-world connection exists: “WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON is incredibly social,” says Wright. “In an increasingly online world, people want events for human connection, to feel part of something. This really does that”.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Pouffer. “Where are we right now? We’re always on our phones. I believe that audiences crave performances that offer a real experience. When we see things on our phones, we always wonder if it has a filter, if it’s been altered in some way. I think people more and more want live performances, to feel a “real experience.” With this performance, not only do we do that, but we give the power to the audience — they don’t have to follow the guidelines we offer, and that brings back their own experience.”
In a performance of over thirty different works and with multiple spaces to encounter them, that experience will invariably be different for each audience member. However, that freedom to explore and choose presents a tantalising sense of discovery and, perhaps, encourages the moments of social connection that Wright mentions. “This piece just feels like a great gateway to discovering contemporary dance,” says Wright. “If people don’t like something, they can move on — or go to the bar!”
While that sense of audience agency isn’t something new to the world of immersive and interactive theatre, for Rambert, it brings a fresh angle to the company. “I believe this company is multifaceted with different personalities,” says Pouffer. “The dancers have done lots of different things, but this we haven’t done. For them, meeting different dancers from (LA)HORDE, working with them, it’s a true collaboration. I’m excited for them, and to see them adapt.”
What can audiences of WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON most look forward to? “It’s a really raw, visceral, exciting experience,” says Pouffer. “And I would say there aren’t so many chances to be part of a moment, so be here, be part of this moment, and experience this work with us.”
Written by Rachel Elderkin.
WE SHOULD HAVE NEVER WALKED ON THE MOON will be performed between September 3rd and 6th, 2025. Tickets can be booked here.
This large-scale project is made possible with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.
