Rose - variation

The stage from the floor to the flies, the dancers’ bodies and the set, Rose envelopes us in pink. Rose – variation is a piece which deconstructs the classical ballet vocabulary, examining and resetting each figure, each classical step in new variations.

Rose was originally created in 2001 for the Royal Swedish Ballet. The stage from the floor to the flies, the dancers’ bodies and the set, Rose envelopes us in pink. Rose – variation is a piece which deconstructs the classical ballet vocabulary, examining and resetting each figure, each classical step in new variations.

Several well-known movements are re worked from the inside out, fully exploiting their creative and imaginary potential, movements such as a rond de jambe, a grand jeté, a battement, a turn en dehors: these codified figures evoke a corporal fiction which must be entirely reconfigured. Working with the specificity of a corps de ballet, each dancer becomes a soloist who creates their part with the choreographer.

The piece is presented as a series of solos – bravura turns for the dancers – which are then picked up and performed in unison by the group. The beginning of the piece is also its ending since it begins with a series of downstage bows, a specific set of jumps punctuates the piece as if presenting itself before letting itself be seen.

The construction of the work is supported by the music, played live on a pink piano and played by a pianist dressed also in pink, who is in direct contact with the dancers.

The Beethoven piano sonata #17 is set in three movements: Largo-Allegro, Adagio, and Allegretto. It is virtuosic, powerful and luminous, accompanying the dancers’ technical virtuosity while sharing with them the essence of the music. It is a darker piece, written when Beethoven was nearly deaf and fighting valiantly to continue composing.

Rose – variation is an exploration of the poetics of ballet vocabulary, revisited by the exceptional contemporary dancers of the CCN – Ballet de Lorraine.

source : CCN – Ballet de Lorraine