The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

Set to the final movement of Schubert’s Symphony n° 9, “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” reuses traditional elements of ballet dancing: the tutu, dancing on pointe, virtuosity, lyricism and a friendly relationship with habits between the sexes.

Set to the final movement of Schubert’s Symphony n° 9, “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” reuses traditional elements of ballet dancing: the tutu, dancing on pointe, virtuosity, lyricism and a friendly relationship with habits between the sexes.

The pas de cinq is a mind-boggling demonstration of the classical technique which is used to illustrate the way in which Forsythe sees the vocabulary of the ballet as an element of a range of choreographic possibilities − distilled here into its purest and most brilliant form. An affectionate homage to Petipa and Balanchine in its use of their codes, to their compositional structures (solos set among the pas de deux, pas de trois and ensemble sections), to their work of prompt and precise allegro, “The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude” belongs nevertheless to our time in its manifest celebration of the dancer: the capacity to transform the technical difficulty into triumph of physical mastery and the embodiment of an entire tradition of dance.

This piece features in the repertoire of the CCN – Ballet de Lorraine and was presented in April 2012 by the CCN along with two other pieces by William Forsythe: “Steptext”, which deconstructs the course of traditional choreographic sequences; “The Vile Parody of Address”, which is a rigorously contrapuntal exercise for piano, voice and dancers.

Source : National Center of Dance (France)