Van Manen/Kylián/Goecke
Ballet

An evening with three masterpieces

Jiří Kylián is one of the legendary figures of the international dance scene. For over three decades, he shaped the artistic profile of the Nederlands Dans Theater, which under his leadership developed into one of the best contemporary ballet companies in the world. What unites Kylián's choreographies is their painful beauty and a lightness of movement that goes hand in hand with deep musicality, expressive emotionality, and poignant inwardness. In ‹Bella Figura› (1995), Kylián embarks on a fascinating journey through time and thought, once again grappling with fundamental questions of human existence and seeking to overcome the entrenched boundaries between dream and reality, between appearance and being. Set to a mixture of old and new music – Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Lucas Foss – this work, which has long been part of the world repertoire, brings together breathtaking duets, trios, and quartets.

Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen combines two very different pieces of music in a sensual, elegant, and comedic duet: in 1996, he created the prelude to one of his most moving dances in his long list of masterpieces, set to the melancholic blues song by JJ Cales that gives the piece its title and Stravinsky's exuberant ‹Circus Polka›. In ‹The Old Man and Me›, the grand master of contemporary ballet takes a tongue-in-cheek look at a couple growing older, but also sensitively revisits their shared memories.

Marco Goecke's masterpiece ‹Le Spectre de la Rose›, created for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo in 2009 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes, will be performed in Basel for the first time in Switzerland. Mikhail Fokine's work became a classic as soon as it premiered in 1911, and its fascination continues to this day. Marco Goecke approaches the iconic pas de deux in the form of an extension. It tells the poetic dream of a girl who is seduced into dancing by the spirit of a rose. Goecke's thoroughly ironic interpretation creates a mysterious world full of longing for love to the composition of Carl Maria von Weber's ‹Aufforderung zum Tanz›.