Mark Baldwin

Mark Baldwin talks about his years as a dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director of Rambert.

Mark was born in Fiji and educated in New Zealand where he trained as a dancer alongside studying for a degree in Fine Art. In this interview, Mark recalls joining Rambert as a dancer in 1983 and describes how performing in both historic and new works and working with a variety of choreographers fed into and influenced his own choreographic craft. In 2002, Mark was appointed Artistic Director of Rambert and has sought to commission new music, new choreographers and new design. Alongside this, Mark has continued to acknowledge the importance of restaging historic works such as ‘Dark Elegies’ (Tudor, 1937), ‘Lady into Fox’ (Howard, 1939) and ‘A Tragedy of Fashion’ (Ashton, 1926; Spink, 2004).

In this interview, Mark reflects on the challenges and successes he has experienced as Artistic Director, tells us of his many inspirations and discusses how he works collaboratively with composers, artists and other choreographers.

00:14:35 New Zealand Ballet
00:18:56 Richard Alston
00:20:40 Merce Cunningham
00:28:14 ‘The Creation’ (Baldwin, 2016)
00:39:24 John Chesworth
00:47:15 Christopher Bruce
01:02:00 Hans Werner Henze
01:06:20 Michael Howells
01:13:03 Cunningham Event

Interview recorded on 6 September 2016 at Rambert, London.
Interviewer: Claire Izzard; Filmmaker: Paul Izzard

The Rambert Voices oral history project is part of Rambert at 90, a project marking the company’s 90th anniversary, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.