Every day, Claire Kretzschmar of the New York City Ballet goes from class to rehearsal to performance at a breathless pace. Dance alongside her busy day.
Every day, Claire Kretzschmar of the New York City Ballet goes from class to rehearsal to performance at a breathless pace. Dance alongside her busy day.
Royal Ballet Principal dancer Steven McRae draws parallels between his two passions, dance and motor racing. The two activities may seem completely different, but McRae points out that they share elements of danger, precision and adrenaline.
Ballet by Benjamin Millepied
Symphonie chorégraphique by Maurice Ravel
In this double bill, which is named after the two choreographers whose works will be staged, Benjamin Millepied, the celebrated choreographer of the blockbuster movie “Black Swan” and until recently the Aristic Director of the Paris Opera Ballet, will present one of his pieces in Berlin for the first time: “Daphnis et Chloé”, which is set to Maurice Ravel’s “symphonie chorégraphique” with the same name. With this one-hour-long piece, Millepied introduced himself to the Parisian public in 2013. In Berlin, his ballet will be having its German premiere.
The story of the ballet can be summed up easily: Inspired by the Greek epigraph of Longus the adventures of Daphnis and Chloé are told: the discovery of their love, the appearance of the seductive and disturbing Lycéion, the tricks of the malicious Dorcon, the kidnapping of Chloé by Bryaxis and the pirates, the intervention of the nymphs and the god Pan, and the happy ending in which the young lovers are finally united.
For the piece, the French artist Daniel Buren has designed a geometric color scheme that transforms the bucolic landscapes in which the ancient story about the two foundling children is originally set into a reduced but intense aesthetic. Large stripes, squares and circles give the dancers a tension-packed frame, which they, clothed in colorful costumes, bring to life with a classic movement language.
Ballet by Jean-Christophe Maillot
Music by Claudio Monteverdi, Biagio Marini, Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger
While Millepied’s “Daphnis et Chloé” shines just like the sun on the first day of a promising summer, Jean-Christophe Maillot’s piece “Altro Canto” from 2006 appears rather solemn and almost liturgical: In ever new constellations more than one hundred candles (stage design by Rolf Sachs) illuminate the otherwise empty stage space while we hear baroque compositions by Monteverdi, Marini, and Kapsberger.
The longtime director of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo in the Principality of Monaco is particularly interested in the flickering of the candles, the effect whose magic captures the moments between light and darkness, in which the bodies for a short glimpse solidify as statues and a new perspective on movement becomes possible. At the same time, the flickering is to be understood – in the sense of a tremor – as a continuous movement from one emotion to the next.
To this contrast between light and shadow, fragility and monumentality Maillot also adds the fundamental duality of the sexes, which is also set into movement by this choreography. Fashion Grandmaster Karl Lagerfeld has designed matching costumes: On stage, men wear skirts, women wear are trousers, everybody is wearing everything quite naturally – but never in the way of a foolish travesty, but always with refined elegance. And so the necessary tension is evoked that creates the space for that special resonance which unfolds its mysterious charm in the space “in-between”.
The double bill “Maillot / Millepied” is an hors d’œuvre for the varied French ballet tradition, which has found a wonderful contemporary expression with the two choreographies “Daphnis et Chloé” and “Altro Canto”.
“Without haste, but without rest.”
By Goethe.
I like this poem.
And so very beautiful sun and sky everyday in Russia.
Swan Lake, ballet.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer
Rudolf Nureyev choreography (based on version by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov).
Amandine Albisson danseuse étoile (Odette, Odile)
Mathieu Ganio danseur étoile (Prince Siegfried)
François Alu premier danseur (Rothbart)
Les premiers Danseurs et le Corps de Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris
with
the Paris Opera Orchestra
conducted by Vello Pähn.
Movie director : François Roussillon
Ballet recorded at the Opéra Bastille (Paris, France), on December 8, 2016.
Discover the story of The Ninth Symphony through a serie of bonus from the documentary “Dancing Beethoven” by Arantxa Aguirre. This exceptional show, hymn to universal brotherhood, was danced by the Béjart Ballet Lausanne and the Tokyo Ballet, from 6 to 8 January 2017 at Forest National, Brussels.
TRAILER:
DOCUMENTARY:
Full videos of two Merce Cunningham ballets.
Santtu Mustonen joins New York City Ballet for the fifth presentation of Art Series, which welcomes contemporary artists to our Lincoln Center home.
Chase Finlay talks about what makes Peter Martins’ partnering so fun to watch but so challenging for dancers to do — and takes us behind the scenes of his cross training regimen to prepare.
Adrian Danchig-Waring explains the medieval inspiration behind Balanchine’s modernist masterpiece, and how THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS has stood the test of time.
Jared Angle talks about how dancing in silence intensifies his connection to the audience and to his fellow dancers in Jerome Robbins’ MOVES, the only ballet in the repertory without music.
Joaquin De Luz talks about taking on the iconic title role in PRODIGAL SON, Balanchine’s interpretation of the Biblical tale, first choreographed for Diaghilev’s legendary Ballet Russes in 1929.
Marika Anderson talks about her childhood love of Tschaikovsky and the important role of the corps in Balanchine’s one-act.
Sterling Hyltin discusses what it takes to play the “mad ballerina” in Jerome Robbins’ comic ballet about “the perils of everybody”.
A critically lauded choreographer and filmmaker hailing from Sweden, Pontus Lidberg often focuses on emotionally complex and psychological relationships, and Winter 2017 will see his first premiere for New York City Ballet, set to a commissioned score by David Lang.
Megan Fairchild on the building drama of her solo in ALLEGRO BRILLANTE.
Go behind the scenes with Principal Dancers Vitor Luiz, Maria Kochetkova and Yuan Yuan Tan to learn more about how SF Ballet created the artwork for the 2017 Season.
Look out for our upcoming interview with Sayaka!
Photo: David Herrero.