International Dance Day
Dance communicate emotions that transcend language barrieres. International Dance Day is an annual celebration of the positive impact of dance on our lives and its place in cultures accross the world.
OperaVision had a choreographic feast to celebrate dance and ballet on Monday 29 April 2024, with the new Ukrainian ballet Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, and 4 performances from Polish National Ballet, Ballett am Rhein, Royal Swedish Ballet and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
International Dance Day Programme
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
19:00 CET.
New ballet from Lviv - a Ukrainian Romeo and Juliet for International Dance Day.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors tells the story in ballet about a short-lived, like spring, earthly and divine love of Ivan and Marichka, a Ukrainian Romeo and Juliet. Their passion blossoms amidst a backdrop of long-standing family rivalry and vengeance, and ultimately triumphs over this hostility. Ivan and Marichka are true children of nature; they listen to the voices of their shadows of forgotten ancestors which stir the souls.
More dance on OperaVision
Giselle
Can you dance to death?
Giselle is an ethereal, timeless ballet about eternal love. In this ghost-filled tragedy, a beautiful young peasant girl falls for a disguised nobleman named Albrecht. When his identity is revealed by his rival, Hilarion a gamekeeper, Giselle loses her mind and dies of heartbreak. After her premature death, Giselle’s ghost protects her lover from the vengeance of a group of female spirits called Wilis.
The libretto for Giselle was devised by Théophile Gautier, who combined one of his fairy tales, La Cafetière (1831), with the Germanic legend of the Wilis - fiancées who died on the eve of their wedding day - described in a poem by Heinrich Heine. The choreography was created by Jean Coralli, director of the Paris Opera, and Jules Perrot, dancer and partner of Carlotta Grisi, the first Giselle. The famous romantic ballet Giselle has yet to reveal all its secrets. And when it is set by matali crasset, one of the leading figures in contemporary design in France, the dance creates a kind of ethereal leap between tradition and modernity. In this new production streamed live from Opéra national de Bordeaux, the dancers' gestures have not changed, nor have the romantic tutus. This eternal story simply continues in a new setting.