Bach and dance

The session will feature three ballets by three great choreographers of the 20th century: Balanchine, Spoerli, and Nureyev, with music by J.S. Bach. They will be presented and discussed by Roger Salas, curator of the Coda en movimiento series.

Free admission. Invitations can be picked up at the museum ticket office.

BAROQUE CONCERTO (GEORGE BALANCHINE)

Choreography: George Balanchine

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043

Premiere: 1941

Duration: 18 minutes

Balanchine said of this work: "If dance designers see the development of classical dance as a counterpart to the development of music and have studied both, they will draw continuous inspiration from great musical scores.”.

In the first movement of the concerto, two dancers personify the violins while accompanied by a corps de ballet of eight dancers. In the second movement, a largo, the male dancer joins the female lead in a pas de deux. In the final section, allegro, the entire ensemble expresses the rhythmic and syncopated vitality of Bach's music.

The work began as an exercise by Balanchine for the School of American Ballet and was performed by the American Ballet Caravan on its historic tour of South America in 1941. When it was added to the repertoire of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1945, Balanchine dressed the dancers in more practical costumes in what was probably the first appearance of what has come to be considered Balanchine's signature modern ballet costume. In 1948, Concerto Barrocco was one of three ballets included in the program for the first performance of the New York City Ballet.

GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (HEINZ SPOERLI)

Choreography: Heinz Spoerli

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Premiere: 1993

Company: Zurich Ballet

The Goldberg Variations Spoerli's works are abstract, choral pieces of modern ballet. They were originally created in 1993 for the German Opera on the Rhine (Düsseldorf) with designs by Dutch artist Kekso Dekker and have been part of the Zurich Ballet's repertoire since 1996.

The work uses the entire score completed by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in 1742, near the end of his career, and the Swiss choreographer is the only one to have embarked on the adventure of bringing the entire work to dance, although it had previously been used in part by other choreographers. In Spoerli's Goldberg Variations , the challenge lies in translating the contrapuntal complexity of the musical work into danced images.

BACH'S SUITE No. 3 (NUREYEV)

Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev in collaboration with Francine Lancelot

Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 3 in C Major for Solo Cello BWV 1009

Premiere: 1984

Company: Paris Opera Ballet

Nureyev joined the Paris Opera Ballet in 1983 and asked Francine Lancelot, a dancer specializing in ancient dance, particularly Baroque and traditional dance, to prepare a ballet solo for him to Bach's Suite No. 3, his favorite composer.

Francine Lancelot drew inspiration from the Bach Suite section of the dance manual written by Pierre Rameau (1674–1748), in which the ballet master and theorist explains in detail how to perform steps from some forty dances from the time of Louis XIV for court dances and opera ballets.

Building on Lancelot's work, Rudolf Nureyev participated in the choreography, developing the baroque character or moving away from it, depending on his own inspiration.

"I am amazed at how, working by imitation and without notation, Nureyev assimilates such complicated sequences. He acquired the natural movements of the arm and the sense of gesture instinctively. If I show him that the ornamentation is correct before the note, he understands and reacts instantly. After only a few rehearsals, he has practically abandoned strength in favor of grace." This is how Francine Lancelot described Nureyev's work in an article quoted in Rudolf Nureyev in Paris, the program book designed by the Paris Opera staff and published by La Martinière on the occasion of the gala held on January 20, 2003, at the Palais Garnier to mark the tenth anniversary of the choreographer's death.