Elsa Canasta
The Telegraph | Ismene Brown
In a brothel we find a masterly soul singer, Melanie Marshall, and Jean-Marc Puissant's fabulous steel staircase. Up and down the clientele prowl, men grabbing men's crotches, girls with legs of steel and hearts of gold. (…) This is a big, deserved popular hit.
Financial Times | Clement Crisp
A staircase dominates Jean-Marc Puissant's handsome set and the dancers go up and down, behaving with unfazed frankness. Two men make love; buttocks are clutched and clenched; all this gives the piece a happily louche air, as if at a dance in a grand maison de passe.
The Stage | Gavin Roebuck
On a superb set designed by Jean-Marc Puissant, Venezuelan choreographer Javier de Frutos creates an original dance piece, Elsa Canasta. The set, a slightly curved staircase seemingly leading to a louche dive, is integral to the choreography.
Dance Europe | Emma Manning
Jean-Marc Puissant’s striking set in a rainbow of greys is dominated by a sweeping staircase, inviting far more activity than would be possible on an elevator. On one side the curved rail serves as an impromptu barre for incidental exercise, while the unguarded side of the stairway invites reckless leaps into arms of another. The stairs offer as good a place for sex; men with men, men with women and lonely souls with themselves. Any permutation is sanctioned on this stairway from heaven to some louche dive below. (…) this rampant, risky work ended new-look Rambert’s programme on a spectacular high. The audience whooped.
Critical Dance.com
Jean Marc Puissant’s set and costumes are all in shades of grey, a curved staircase the lone piece of set. This grey-scale world places the emphasis on the dance and makes everything very ambiguous.
Sunday Herald | Edinburgh
Dressed in monochrome shades- in striking contrast to the spangled glamour of porter’s tunes- the set is dominated by an ingenious, sweeping staircase in which dancers enter. (…) Original, free and oh-so sexy….
The Scotsman | Edinburgh
With a sweeping stairway to unseen delights, the stage is set for brilliant itchy, crotch-led encounters of the love-hate kind. It’s balletic, camp, deviant, and full of wicked little details that grab your imagination- and other dancers body parts.
Rambert Dance Company
Aeternum . Dangerous Lady . Pêcheurs de Perles . His Greatness . DGV (New York) . Madame Butterfly . Aida
God’s Garden . Chinese Opera . Electric Counterpoint . Jewels . Paseillo . DGV (London) . Nopalitos . Klavier
VIII . Swan Lake . Elsa Canasta . Poppea . Tryst . The Seasons . Peer Gynt
theatre | opera | dance