Compañía Nacional de Danza

“Stravinsky’s work was never made to be danced. It is therefore a strong and important musical statement in which one of the main invocations, to give praise with dance, was not fulfilled. So, this choreography was made merely to complete the original concept of the text –to praise the Lord with dance. But what is it that must be praised with this physical prayer?. It is more a lament for an imperfect and disunited world in which the suffering and uncertainty of each individual meet in ironic dialogue with Stravinsky’s religious score.

Kylián has devised a choreography which totally respects the rectangular shape of conventional stages. It is his symbolic gesture, accepting the limitations which life too, imposes on us. But these borders do not necessarily represent a negative reality. They often stimulate our creativity to find freedom and fantasy within the space we were assigned to. This austere and angular concept of the choreography is echoed in the shapes and patterns of the hanging carpets which form the background of this labyrinthine world. These carpets found in the flea markets of Holland find renewed life as an essential part of a production which is, at heart, a celebration of the human survival spirit over worldly materialism.”
-Christian Harvey