DANCE | HØPE
Lucinda Childs | Alessandro Sciarroni
Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon
In 2026, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels is supporting the Opéra de Lyon for the creation of HØPE by Alessandro Sciarroni. Dance Reflections is also supporting the Festival d'Automne and La Villette for the presentation of DANCE by Lucinda Childs and HØPE by Alessandro Sciarroni.
The Lyon Opera Ballet brings together two choreographers whose work is rooted in repetitive movement: Lucinda Childs, with DANCE, her iconic 1979 work, and Alessandro Sciarroni, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, who presents HØPE, a new piece inspired by a dance from cowboy culture.
DANCE is one of those landmark works of postmodern dance that can be returned to again and again. Created in close collaboration with composer Philip Glass and visual artist Sol LeWitt, it grew out of the research Lucinda Childs pursued after working with Bob Wilson on Einstein on the Beach. In the piece, Childs develops a rigorous, abstract choreographic language, free of narrative. Patterns repeat and shift almost imperceptibly, while the music and video projections multiply their effects, creating a hypnotic experience.
This dialogue between dance, musical composition and visual form is also central to Alessandro Sciarroni’s work. After exploring various folk dances in pieces ranging from Folks to Save the Last Dance for Me, he turns here to the two-step, a codified dance associated with cowboys. Through repetition and variation, he gradually alters its contours, introducing shifts in rhythm and perception. What emerges is a singular emotion, marked by gentleness and nostalgia.