Celebrating their 30th anniversary, the Israeli Opera is presenting an exciting dance season! Coming soon is the very welcome return of Compagnie Marie Chouinard with performances from October 15 – 18, 2014. Having had the pleasure of seeing the company perform bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG, I recall a mesmerizing performance. Chouinard’s choreography is intensely body-centered, with an imaginative re-visioning and exploration of possibilities, performed – an experience not to be missed!
The current program will feature two works: Chouinard’s interpretation of The Rite of Spring, and Henri Michaux: Mouvements. The Rite of Spring is a ballet in one act, created at the National Arts Center, Ottowa Canada in 1993. Stravinsky’s erotic, ritualistic, music, which has inspired many leading choreographers over the years, receives a new interpretation here, focusing on the solos within the work, the presence of the dancer in the music. Chouinard’s statement on this work: “There is no story in my Rite, no development, no cause and effect. Only synchronicity. It is as if I were dealing with the very moment after the instant life first appeared. The performance is the unfolding of that moment. I have the feeling that before that moment there was an extraordinary burst of light, a flash of lightning.”
Henri Michaux: Mouvements, was created at ImPulsTanz, Vienna International Dance Festival in 2011, and includes a solo created at Cinquième salle, Place des Arts (Montréal) in 2005. The work is based on a book, Mouvements by Henri Michaux (1899 – 1984), that is composed of 64 pages of India-ink drawings, a poem and an afterword. In relating to this book, Chouinard interprets the drawings as a choreographic score, to the letter, including also the poem at the center of the book. In this interpretation, the drawings also become the set design for the ballet, projected as the background for the dance – black drawings on a white background, a counterpoint to the dancers dressed in black, moving on a white stage.
Performances will take place: Wednesday, October 15th at 21:00; Thursday, October 16th at 21:00; and Friday, October 17th at 13:00. Ticket prices range from 149 – 299 NIS, and may be ordered online www.israel-opera.co.il or call: 03-6927777.
