Evening at the ballet

Saw with Hubert a ballet in the Varia-theater in Brussels: "L'âme du diable" of Thierry Smits/La compagnie Thor. A very gay-erotically ballet of 2 guys (alternated performances with 2 girls). I can imagine no gay-people being offended and schocked by the performance, but I did like it. The story was based on the Faust history/legend; Three 'pas de deux' interlinked with soundscapes, taking with it the SM/gay-erotic and the eros/thanatos issues resulted in a short (1 hour) ballet. I loved also the four slightly rotating rounded shapes on the background, revealing the red-metallic innerside. 7 out of 10.

Evening at the ballet

Twelve Seasons of Cie Michèle Noiret at the 'théatre Les Tanneurs' and music 'Tierkreis' of Stockhausen played life.
I am starting being difficult now. For me there was no structure in the piece, or if there was one I couldn't find it. Not that it is necessary. I loved some projections of water/clouds on the walls. And on the dance-level (even if for me it was more body-motion/movement than ballet) there were 2 moments I liked : first when 2 groups of three dancers where building stand-still positions where 2 of the 3 dancers are holding each-other without falling, the third one comes in and hold one of the 2 dancers so the other can go away, en so on ... difficult to explain but beautiful to see. The second moment I liked was the solo of a female dancer where she moved (body-motion) in a light-circle. There was one thing very special : they used electronic devices attached to their bodies to make effects on sound, light, projections, but for me they only 'tried' it out, they never developed further the use of one of those electronic devices. 4 out of 10

Evening at the ballet

'Rain' of Anne-Theresa De Keersmaeker on the 'music for 18 musicians' of steve Reich. (9/10). When De Keersmaeker let her dancers move on music of Steve Reich it is like ... speechless !!!! A few negative points are : too much running in circles and the ladies are sometimes to 'baroque' in their jumping-movements. The scenic part (ropes making an almost broken-circle-spiral-curtain) gives it a plus.

Evening at the ballet

Seen 'Un jour la nuit' : a ballet of Michèle Anne De Mey. All the music was of Gustav Mahler (music I adore), 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' and some movements of the 1st Symphony 'Der Titan'. Not so good compared with 'Drumming' of last month.

Evening at the ballet

Seen 'Drumming' : a ballet of Anne Theresa De Keersmaeker on music of Steve Reich ... simply superb !!!! Afterwards a little drink with Mimi and Geert ...

Evening at the opera-house 'De Munt'

This time to see a ballet : 'Just before' from Anne Theresa De Keersmaeker. Wonderful - too much to look at ... so looking from one thing to the other ... Beautiful live music performed by the Ictus Ensemble : John Cage, Steve Reich, Iannis Xenakis, Magnus Lindberg, Pierre Bartholomée, Thierry De Mey and even Claude Debussy - especially 'drumming' of Steve Reich ... Text from Jolente De Keermaeker ( by the way : I've noticed that I had problems to look at ballet and listen to text at the same time, perhaps it is the perception in the mind that causes this ... strange though !!!)