Cancelled: Bella Figura

The four-part evening Bella Figura is an homage to the great Jiří Kylián, a legend of the international dance world, by the Ballets Zürich. For more than three decades, this native of Prague was the choreographic and artistic head of the Nederlands Dans Theaters, which under his direction has evolved into one of the best contemporary ballet ensembles in the world. Kylián’s choreographies captivate time and again with their painful beauty and lightness of movement, accompanied by deep musicality, expressive emotion, and poignant introspection.

In Bella Figura, Kylián embarks on a fascinating journey through space and time, exploring the boundaries between art and artificiality, between life-like and fantasy.  Set to a mixture of music both old and new – Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Lukas Foss – he reflects the realities of the life of a professional dancer, and creates an homage to beauty and dancing on the stage.

One of the pieces created in the wake of an extended stay in Australia is Stepping Stones (1989). Kylián pleads for a deliberate and responsible approach to tradition to music by John Cage and Anton Webern.

Following in the footsteps of Franz Kafka and the Belgian painter René Magritte, again to music by Anton Webern, Sweet Dreams (1990) presents itself as an enigmatic game about sex, power, and abuse.

That humor is, above all, a question of timing, taste, and proportion, is strikingly demonstrated by Kylián in his Sechs Tänzen (1986), set to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Ambiguously and suggestively, he whirls classic set pieces together, creating a funny and frivolous «battle of the sexes» in the process.