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Approximate Sonata 2016 / One Flat Thing, reproduced / Blake Works I
William Forsythe is a choreographic legend, revered worldwide as one of the most creative and innovative innovators of the ballet tradition. Beginning in the 1970s, he revolutionized dance with an intelligent evolution of academic ballet that completely freed the human body from the corset of prescriptions and expanded the dance vocabulary in ways never before seen.
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KEY VISUAL Staatsballett Berlin
Many of his virtuoso compositions have long been modern classics.
In this tribute to William Forsythe, the Staatsballett dances three seminal pieces by the American choreographer.
BLAKE WORKS I
- Choreography by William Forsythe
- Music by James Blake
In Blake Works I, Forsythe explores the vocabulary of ballet to catapult it to a higher level. He combines it with complex movement patterns that are recognizable, but unfold in a completely new way based on James Blake's electronic pop music and evocative vocals.
Because of the freedom of interpretation that Forsythe allows the dancers, the piece always appears anew, it continues to evolve, not only in the repertoire of any ballet company, but also with each performance.
APPROXIMATE SONATA 2016
- Choreography by William Forsythe
- Music by Thom Willems
Approximate Sonata means something like "almost sonata," referring to the importance of the sonata in musicological formal theory. Similarly, in this minimalist choreography William Forsythe presupposes the canon of rules of classical ballet in order to question the validity of the elements of the pas de deux with four couples in variations in a thoroughly ironic way. The Staatsballett Berlin dances Approximate Sonata in the 2016 version that Forsythe created for the Paris Opera Ballet.
ONE FLAT THING, REPRODUCED
- Choreography by William Forsythe
- Music by Thom Willems
One Flat Thing, Reproduced - premiered in 2000 with Ballett Frankfurt - comes at the end of the three-part ballet evening and adds another facet to the spectrum of Forsythe's ballet explorations: inspired by the reports on Robert F. Scott's famous South Pole expedition in 1911, Forsythe here develops an increasingly condensed choreography that reaches its climax in the apparent chaos of bodies in the midst of 20 - initially perfectly arranged - tables. The choreographer compares these tables to ice - slippery and unpredictably dangerous.
Set to music by Thom Willems, One Flat Thing, Reproduced is a breathtaking choreography of pulsating and losing oneself. It is rightly considered one of William Forsythe's major works, in which the virtuosity of the performers:inside competes with the ingenious complexity of the choreography.
William Forsythe himself will rehearse his three works with the dancers of the Staatsballett in Berlin.
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Participating artists
William Forsythe (Choreographie)
James Blake (Musik)
William Forsythe (Bühne)
Tanja Rühl (Licht)
Dorothee Merg (Kostüme)
William Forsythe (Kostüme)
Stefanie Arndt (Einstudierung)
Ayman Harper (Einstudierung)
Thom Willems (Musik)
William Forsythe (Bühne und Licht)
Stephen Galloway (Kostüme)
Thierry Guideroni (Einstudierung)
