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BALLET EVENING In 2 parts
Venue: Astana, Astana Opera
BALLET EVENING
In two parts
One-act ballet by Raimondo Rebeck How Long Is Now?
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One-act ballets Sechs Tänze and Petite Mort to music by W.A. Mozart choreography by Jiří Kylián
BALLET DANCERS AND THE ASTANA OPERA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Artistic Director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company:
Altynai ASYLMURATOVA, People’s Artist of Russia
Conductor: Elmar BURIBAYEV
Stage Managers: Altynganym AKHMETOVA, Ainur KHALELOVA
HOW LONG IS NOW?
One-act ballet
The ballet How Long Is Now? by the German choreographer R. Rebeck is a philosophical reflection on time and its distinct moments.
How long can Now last at different moments of life? It seems to the one who is in love that a kiss is as long as eternity, and the memories of suffering can last forever or disappear without a trace... Time flows differently for a person who is painfully passing away, and for people who love this person.
Today is tomorrow’s Yesterday, because what has just happened, immediately becomes the past. Thus, you can answer the question “How Long Is Now?”, as the White Rabbit answered a similar question of Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Now, like Forever, sometimes lasts just one second”.
In Raimondo Rebeck’s ballet, three pairs of ballet dancers will illustrate the different stages of a person’s life. By means of art of dance, the talented choreographer makes an original attempt to investigate time, its flow and perception.
The ballet features music by Max Richter, Harry Escott, Ezio Bosso, Olafur Arnalds and Ludovico Einaudi, who gained special acclaim for his soundtrack to the film The Intouchables, as well as by Les Tambours du Bronx (“the Drums of the Bronx”) percussion band.
ROLES AND PERFORMERS:
Time – Arman URAZOV
Youth – Alina ZYRYANOVA, Daniyar ZHUMATAYEV
Adulthood – Anastasia ZAKLINSKAYA, Olzhas TARLANOV
Maturity – Assel SHAIKENOVA, Zhaksylyk SAUKYMBEKOV
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Choreography: Raimondo Rebeck
Scenography (to the sketches by Raimondo Rebeck): Victor Carare
Lighting Design: Carlo Cerri
Costume Design (to the sketches by Raimondo Rebeck): Arassel Dosmuratova
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One-act ballets to music by W. A. Mozart
choreography by Jiří Kylián
PETITE MORT
The ballet Petite Mort was created to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (the slow movements of two piano concertos) for the Salzburg Festival on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death in 1991.
The title Petite Mort is profound and metaphorical. “La petite mort” (“the little death”) is what the French call the culmination of carnal pleasures, but Kylián is fascinated by the diversity of lovemaking, from innocent touches to passionate entanglements of bodies.
The six adagios arising from the meditative mass compositions are a masterpiece of amazing interpenetration of a magnificent musical basis and filigree movements. The bodies are obedient to the touch of the partners and the breath of the music, the love duels are drawn by an intricate graphic of lines.
Here love and death go hand in hand. The ballet is performed by six men and six women. In the hands of the male dancers there are either sharp rapiers or naked female bodies. The duets in Petite Mort are filled with sensuality, but Jiří Kylián does not at all emphasise the theme of carnal love; on the contrary, the divine harmony of his choreography leads to the fact that the duets suddenly lose all corporal sexuality and the eroticism loses its unambiguousness. It is not by chance that Kylián’s ballet has been called “a love lyric of the highest standard”.
PERFORMERS:
Gulnaz ZHANAYEVA, Amir KHWAN
Sofiya ADILKHANOVA, Islam KAIPBAY
Shugyla ADEPKHAN, Arman URAZOV
Adelina TULEPOVA, Serik NAKYSPEKOV
Anastasia ZAKLINSKAYA, Dias KURMANGAZY
Yerkezhan ZHUNUSSOVA, Zhanibek AKHMEDIYEV
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Production Concept / Set Design / Choreography: Jiří Kylián
Assistant to the Choreographer: Stefan Zeromski
Costume Design: Joke Visser
Light Design: Jiří Kylián
Light Design Realization: Joop Caboort
Technical Supervisor Light/Set: Joost Biegelaar
Piano: Sultan Ibragimov
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SECHS TÄNZE
The ballet Sechs Tänze was created by Jiří Kylián in 1986, marking the 230th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And it is probably one of the most famous comic ballets, part of the so-called “Black & White Ballets” series. It has since been one of the most acclaimed productions. Jiří Kylián has a special signature style, which has far exceeded the bounds of the classical “canon”. He has been firmly established as a philosophical choreographer, exploring more the depths of human nature than the physical capacities of the body, and is renowned for his phenomenal musicality. Today, many theatres around the world are fighting for the right to stage dance compositions by Jiří Kylián, the Czech genius of contemporary ballet, the Picasso of dance.
Two centuries separate us from the time Mozart wrote his German Dances. A historical period shaped considerably by wars, revolutions, and all sorts of social upheavals. With this in mind, I found it impossible to simply create different dance numbers reflecting merely the humour and musical brilliance of the composer. Instead, I have set six seemingly non-sensical acts, which obviously ignore their surroundings. They are dwarfed in face of the ever-present troubled world, which most of us for some unspecified reason carry in our souls. Although the entertaining quality of Mozart’s Sechs Tänze enjoys great general popularity, it shouldn’t only be regarded as a burlesqué. Its humour ought to serve as a vehicle to point towards our relative values.
Jiří Kylián
Karine – Limara AIDAROVA
Paul – Olzhas TARLANOV
Carolina – Madina KUZHAMZHAROVA
Johan – Alexandr KORNILOV
Lisa – Moldir SHAKIMOVA
Patrick – Nima TOKOV
Nancy – Kamilla ORMANOVA
Urtzi – Aibar TOKTAR
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Choreographer: Jiří Kylián
Assistant to the Choreographer: Shirley Esseboom
Set and Costume Designs: Jiří Kylián
Light Design: Jiří Kylián (concept)
Light Design Realization: Joop Caboort
Technical Supervisor Light/Set: Joost Biegelaar
