PROGRAMME

 

Le Carnaval de Venice

Choreography: Marius Petipa

Music: Cesare Pugni

Also known as Satanella Pas de deux, the work is perhaps the most famous piece associated with Petipa’s original 1840 production of Satanella.

Showcasing the traditional Petipa style, the dance is a flirtatious encounter between two lovers set against the backdrop of a mysterious masked ball.

In 1857, Petipa re-imagined the pas de deux for the benefit performance of the Italian Prima Ballerina Amalia Ferraris, for which he partnered the ballerina personally. It was in this revival that Petipa first introduced the corps de ballet to support the principal couple.

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judge.ME.nt

Choreography: Sara MacQueen & Christopher Radford

Music: Various artists

Judgment is always present; what others think of you, what you think of others, what you think about yourself. The emotional impact and internal conflict it can create affects us all; holding us back and diminishing our potential. It can be the driving force behind actions, the builder and destroyer of relationships and the trigger that causes us to break down.

Portrayed through Contemporary dance, this piece explores how judgment can shape and direct our actions, preventing us from finding the power in our true self. If we were free from the judgments we experience and the ones we put on ourselves, what could we be?

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Motum Perpetuum

Choreography: Gwénaëlle Poline Santos

Music: JS Bach

An engagingly abstract work that brings together a traditional classical vocabulary with the vibrant and dynamic energy of dance in the 21st century.

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Paquita Suite

Choreography: Marius Petipa

Music: Ludwig Minku

Paquita is a superb example of Petipa’s French style and premiered at the Paris Opera in 1846, the ballet was produced a year later in Russia by Marius Petipa. Paquita was originally a ballet-pantomime in 2 acts, choreographed by Ballet Master, Joseph Mazillier, to music by Ernest Deldevez.

The story had a Spanish theme, with Carlotta Grisi (creator of Giselle) as a young woman kidnapped by gypsies, who saves a young and handsome officer form certain death. In Russia, newly appointed Ballet Master Petipa commissioned Ludwig Minkus, a composer he had collaborated with previously for the iconic ballets Don Quixote and La Bayadere, to write additional music, in order to add a brilliant “divertissement” to Mazillier’s production.

For this, Petipa choreographed a Pas de Trois and a Grand Pas de Deux in his characteristic style. These soon became the bravura highlights of the evening-to the point that they are the only fragments of Paquita that have been preserved. The two elements now form the focal points of this work and at flanked by dynamic entrance and coda choreography along with a variety of solo moments.

The dancers display a range of choreographic fireworks, which exploit the virtuoso possibilities of academic classical dance, enriched by the unexpected combinations of steps.