Royal Ballet of Flanders | Season 2006-07

Divertimento no. 15

Balanchine

Choreography: George Balanchine
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Orchestra: soloists of the Beethoven Academy, conducted by Koen Kessels
Balletmaster: Victoria Simon
Advice costumes: Holly Hynes
Technical advice: Perry Silvey

No matter how outstanding your home music system, there is nothing like a live ballet with top class musicians playing the score. To conclude the Mozart Year, the Royal Ballet of Flanders presents "Divertimento N° 15", a wonderful choreography by the genius of ballet, George Balanchine, with the Beethoven Academie playing the music. Hervé Niquet, the new artistic leader of the Beethoven Academie, is keen to explain how the collaboration with the Royal Ballet came about: “Twenty years ago, I was responsible for the musical accompaniment of the ballet of the Paris Opera. That, of course, involved playing for ballet performances. I'll tell you one thing: ballet dancers are quite a different sort of artists than musicians. I was incredibly impressed by the dedication of the dancers, their concentration and the skill they must have to practise their art every day.”

Niquet took over the artistic management of the Beethoven Academie in 2004. Though he was involved a lot in performances with historical instruments, he does not want to turn the Beethoven Academie into a baroque ensemble. The Beethoven Academie mainly seeks to play Belgian music from the nineteenth century. Apart from that, it works a lot with music theatre Transparant and accompanies ballet performances. “I became artistic director of the Beethoven Academie at precisely the time Kathryn Bennetts joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders. One of the first things I actually did, was pay her a visit. We hit it off right away,” Niquet laughs.

Mozart's "Divertimento N°15" was an occasional piece. “The work was commissioned, but that sounds rather negative. In this work, too, the composer's genius is quite noticeable. George Balanchine considered it the most beautiful divertimento ever. For me it evokes the parties of the eighteenth-century aristocracy. Divertimentos are without set structure. The number of movements may vary from one to twelve and the number of instruments varies equally: from one to a complete chamber ensemble. The Beethoven Academie with its forty musicians, is therefore particularly suited to play this divertimento,” reflects Niquet.

The American choreographer George Balanchine was so charmed by Mozart's music that he abandoned the idea to restage "Caracole", an earlier choreography of the work. Instead he created a new ballet for eight principals and an ensemble of eight women, which he named after Mozart's work. Since its premiere in 1956, "Divertimento N°15" is still part of the repertoire of the New York City Ballet and every performance is widely acclaimed. “I look forward to working with the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Ballet remains one of my first loves. Top dancers from the Royal Ballet and top musicians from the Beethoven Academie in one performance: that'll be fireworks,” says Niquet.

Divertimento NO. 15

Claire Pascal and Ilia Belitchkov - Photogr.: Johan Persson

New Sleep

Forsythe

Photogr.: Stephan Floss

Choreography: William Forsythe

Music: Thom Willems

Balletmasters: Andrea Tallis, Alan Barnes, Douglas Becker

Supervision lighting: Olaf Winter

Cues: Urs Fry

In 1987 New Sleep by William Forsythe concluded a mixed programme (the other works were choreographies by Mark Haim, Alida Chase and Amanda Miller). In the Frankfurter Rundschau of 17 February 1987, Roland Langer wrote:

“The exciting finale of the evening was William Forsythe's "New Sleep" that had its premiere three weeks ago [i.e. on 1 February 1987, ed.] in San Francisco. A group of dancers dressed in dark sweaters and ballet shoes rushes around on the scene like mad. A few characters that seem to perform a sort of pantomime find their way among them. A man plays with Chinese stress balls. He is joined by a hybrid sort of character that looks both a magician and a member of the Ku Klux Klan; his distorted face looks like that of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Forsythe's choreography vibrates with the dynamism generated by the movements, yet this remarkable composition is also filled with irony. Forsythe's work elucidates the theme of this evening: the game of contrasts. Tension results from the confrontation of force fields. A thesis is contrasted with its antithesis and from that confrontation progress results. Forsythe commissioned Thom Willems to write the score, who has once more conjured up extraordinary sounds from the synthesizer.

New Sleep

Mikel Jauregui, Joëlle Auspert, Jesse Jacobs, Priit Kripson

Photogr.: Johan Persson

Eyes in the Sky

Shimazaki

Choreography: Toru Shimazaki

Music: René Aubry

Costumes and scenery: Yasuko Tomonaga

Lighting: Shiniya Matsuura

The Japanese choreographer Toru Shimazaki has worked in Antwerp before. Last year he created Patchwork for the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. After seeing "Patchwork", Kathryn Bennetts invited Shimazaki to create a new choreography.

In april 2006 Shimazaki became head of the department contemporary dance at the university of Kobe. He likes to explore different dance languages. He choreographed the musical Elisabeth, about the adventures of the empress Sissi, which is currently performed in four Japanese cities.

He would like to talk about his creation for the Royal Ballet of Flanders, “but right now I can't. I'm focussing just now on my work at the university of Kobe. What I can say, is that it will be entirely different from "Patchwork". That, of course, is quite logical. The Royal Ballet School is after all a school. Students want to become familiar with the language of contemporary dance and you can't expect them to have reached the same level as the dancers of the Royal Ballet. Of course I'm familiar with this company. Technically the dancers perform outstandingly and I am looking forward to creating a contemporary ballet with them that is anchored in the classical art of dance,” Toru informs us by telephone, speaking from Kobe.

For Toru Shimazaki, the basis for a choreography is the music. “Currently I listen a lot to ethnic music from the Far East and some of this music I find very appealing. I'm Japanese, and I don't want to hide my origin, but don't expect a performance that merely breathes Japanese exoticism. For fourteen years I have danced with various ballet companies all over the world. I enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken as much as I do sushi. I'll present a contemporary ballet that does not hide where I come from. But first and foremost I'm going to make something new. For that I'll choose between eight and fourteen of these fantastic dancers of the Royal Ballet of Flanders. Creating something new is a challenge every choreographer with some sense of adventure is eager to take on. I am very happy the Royal Ballet of Flanders has invited me to work with them.”

Eyes in the Sky