“Bring Your Own” ends with one of (La)Horde’s most iconic works from their tenure at Marseille, “Room with a View.” A rallying cry for the ID Magazine generation that enjoyed a warm reception during the London tour last year. We see a ragtag ensemble of fashionably dressed revolutionaries defiantly flip off the audience, they bundle together as they kiss and wail. In one sequence they execute what could only be described as extreme trust-falling, joyously shouting “fuck you!” before collapsing from a height into the arms of their tribe. While the sentiment of liberty is apparent, these antics feel superfluous, more Coachella than communal. In their trendy pret-à-porter attire and semi-convincing gruffness, the rage of the ensemble reads like angst. 

The work begins to pick up as the aggression becomes more palpable, less showy and more animalistic. Dancers smack their elbows threateningly, cower from invisible projectiles, hurtle themselves towards lines of riot police. The beats don’t stop as complex canons of movement ripple through the scrum, Lone’s thumping score pulling us in further and further. While full of agitation and anger, there is still a feeling of underlying hope as the crowd look out at us, singing their song of revolution—it’s very French. 

The American pundit Dan Savage described how during the AIDS crisis activists followed a standard routine: “we would bury our friends in the morning, protest in the afternoon, and we danced all night.” This danced manifesto, while perhaps a tad vague, is fresh and radical in a world where mobilisation has increasingly become a fact of life. This heroic ending quite neatly highlights (La)Horde’s canny ability to resonate with what is current. Their eye for spectacle, particularly in the capable hands of Rambert, provides the wow factor that sends us home on a high. It’s an elusive thing, that high, but all the more glorious when we finally reach the peak.