Tous les trois + 1!
contemporary
ballet
16
Ballet evening in three parts
The programme with French themes begins with Trois Gnossiennes, Hans van Manen’s choreography about resignation, trust and harmony to the music of Erik Satie. In Walking Mad featuring nine dancers and created to Ravel’s Bolero, a wall keeps reshaping the space to make the characters face their own fears, desires and the lightness of existence. Don Juan was man living in the golden age of Spain, that is, the 16th century, whose aim was to seduce every woman he found. In Thierry Malandain’s dance piece, he is a mystical figure, who instead of finding satisfaction in what is special and certain, always needs more and then even more. Marianna Venekei’s Firebirds focuses on female instincts with an ironic, grotesque undertone.
Trois Gnossiennes
Built around the magically beautiful music of Erik Satie, Hans van Manen’s Trois Gnossiennes draws a picture of a unique relationship. This double portrait painted with sensitive brushstrokes flashes with images of trust, submission and dominance, and relativity and interdependence. Masterfully alternating between lyrical and grotesque elements and weaving together memorable human traits, van Manen depicts monologues and dialogue, as well as symbolic moments of a relationship rich in intimate profundities. The bravura elevation of simple poses to the level of acrobatics and the enigmatic and fantastic play with a living body that goes limp make this short but dense work an unforgettable one.
Featuring on piano
Walking Mad
A wall, 3 female and 6 male dancers, and Ravel's Bolero. This is the base of Swedish choreographer Johan Inger's one-act ballet, which he originally created for the Netherlands Dans Theatre in 2001.
The minimalist space takes newer and newer shapes for the ever intensifying music, and newer and newer characters appear in it, in more and more mad situations and states.
"The famous Bolero from Ravel with its sexual, almost kitschy history was the trigger point to make my own version. I quickly decided that it was going to be about relationships in different forms and circumstances. I came up with the idea of a wall that could transform the space during this minimalistic music and create small pockets of space and situations. Walking Mad is a journey in which we encounter our fears, our longings and the lightness of being.
»Our biggest blessings come to us by way of madness« - said Socrates."
Johan Inger
1st girl
2nd girl
3rd girl
2nd boy
3rd boy
4th boy
5th boy
6th boy
Don Juan
Don Juan: a modern treatment of an old subject: the man living in the golden age of Spain, that is, the 16th century, whose aim was to seduce every woman he found. Also considered a character in the commedia dell’arte, he is a freethinker and melancholy philanderer who was so relentless at pursuing his quarry that his name became synonymous with the word “womaniser”. And there’s something about this achievement, one has to admit, to admire. “I like the idea of having a character who is seeking the archetypal “Woman” herself in women. Or perhaps he is seeking himself. For me, he is a mystical figure, who instead of finding satisfaction in what is special and certain, always needs more and then even more. He is a man of action who lives off of those moments he spends beside the bodies of others,” stated choreographer Thierry Malandain. Don Juan is his first collaboration with the Hungarian National Ballet.
Thierry Malandain is represented by Stepping Grounds Arts/Culture Management. www.steppinggrounds.com
Conductor
Commander
The Death
Elvire girls
Firebirds
“Women innately find their own amorous nourishment like birds find seeds or fish. Driven by their instincts, they hover over lakes, river, seas and plains and then after complex swirling and circling manoeuvres, suddenly swoop down all at once and strike. At such times, their instincts and eyesight are both made marvellously evident. They very rarely miss, and it only infrequently occurs that the victim is stronger or more clever and able to slip out of their beaks like a tadpole from a gull’s bill. Then they squawk, just like a seagull, and soar upwards, hovering, circling, tirelessly and alertly.” Quoting this slightly ironic passage from Sándor Márai is Marianna Venekei, the choreographer of the new ballet Firebirds, based on the wonderful music of Igor Stravinsky.