Dance
Lucinda Childs
Philip Glass
In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is presenting again Lucinda Childs’ Dance by Lyon Opera Ballet, in collaboration with New York City Center as part of the Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival in New York.
Dance, created in 1979, is a pinnacle of post-modern dance, a minimalist ballet that strips dance back to the language of the body. This seminal piece marks the first major collaboration of Lucinda Childs with the composer Philip Glass and is a must-see event for every contemporary dance fan.
Interpreted by seventeen dancers in a series of glissades, sauts and pirouettes, the dance explores the repetitive and progressively shifting patterns of the score. Dance and music combine to form a world into which, in the words of Lucinda Childs, you want to "slip". Film plays an important part in this work. The appeal of the work is amplified by the screening of the original Sol LeWitt film, thus producing a hypnotic split between stage and background. Dance is, in every sense of the word, a delight.
Lucinda Childs, co-founder of the Judson Dance Theater, became known in 1976 through her collaboration on the opera Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass. Dance was, however, her first major show, and never did a piece so well deserve its title.
About the artists
Lucinda Childs
In 2023, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the choreographer Lucinda Childs for her creation Relative Calm and its presentation at La Villette. The initiative is also presenting Dance performed by Lyon Opera Ballet, in collaboration with New York City Center.
Lyon Opera Ballet
Following on from his predecessors Françoise Adret, Yorgos Loukos and Julie Guibert, who introduced the company to a wide range of styles, Cédric Andrieux and the Lyon Opera Ballet will continue to discover new areas for contemporary creation while continuing to meet the technical demands of the great choreographers.
Combining its rich heritage – a repertoire of more than 100 works – with a renewed focus on the singular qualities of its performers, the Ballet continues to explore new horizons of contemporary art while maintaining a firm reliance on great choreographic creations. Such is the case for the choreographers William Forsythe, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Marcos Morau, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Alessandro Sciarroni, Mats Ek, Christos Papadopoulos, and Pina Bausch. Kindling wonderment while striving to make sense of the world; blending local action and international prominence, reinterpreting the repertoire with a pioneering pursuit of new aesthetics, the Ballet holds fast to its tradition as a classically trained troupe turning its gaze to contemporary dance. It is still finding new ways of celebrating dance, turning the spotlight on the way dancers interpret the choreography.
Devoting special attention to the formulation of meaning, alongside language, voices, and transdisciplinary collaborations – particularly in the fields of music and visual arts – the Ballet endeavors to broaden the spectrum of now, providing an eloquent counterpoint to the construction of the choreographic arts.
Photo: © Patrick Tourneboeuf
