3xBoléro is a collection of three dance and musical variations based on Maurice Ravel’s classic work, Boléro.
Walking Mad by Johan Inger
Johan Inger created Walking Mad for Nederlands Dans Theater I in 2001, when some young choreographers had been asked to create dance for an orchestra evening. Inger was captivated by an old black and white tv-recording of Boléro with the conductor Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: ”A theatrical image; in the beginning the conductor is very controlled, well combed and correct in his entire conductor image, but parallel to the musical crescendo he becomes increasingly dramatic and excited, as though entering into madness, in an uncontrolled state. Erotic charge was naturally there but I wanted to get away from, or beyond, the more open/clichéd erotic lead that often accompanies this piece of music.”
The wall in Walking Mad is minimalist, as the music represents an early musical minimalism. It divides the work into different rooms, is the reality the different characters relate to; a resonance box they work towards, and with. Initially to the front of the stage, finally to the back, when it has described a circular dramaturgy. The person in hat and coat who, at the beginning of the piece, steps into the Bolerian room, has then done a similar round journey.
Something happens on the journey, during the piece he multiplies in his meeting with the different seeking women, who, like himself, eventually return to their given frames, perhaps a bit older, grayer.
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Photos from Walking Mad
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Orelob by Kenneth Kvarnström
Four originators, five dancers, all must have trust, both in the fall and in the lift. They are components in a musical motor that was once invented by a Frenchman fascinated by mechanics, Maurice Ravel. His Boléro beats somewhere in the background of Rintamäki´s sound picture, whose volume just grows, interrupted by a wedge, or rather a gleam, of bell sounds. The costumes, set design and light quote the rhythmic core motif – in graphic shapes on a reflector, in a collar’s creases and folds, garments that can take the shape of a bolero, a magical flower, or more industrial: cogwheels.
Unfolding, increasing, folding, a growing volume alongside a rhythm where bodies are united in a motoric musicality, both monumental and divinely light. OreloB was created for The Göteborg Ballet in 2008
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Photos from OreloB
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Episode 17 by Alexander Ekman
A group of people gather regularly, in episodes, in order to explore different themes. On this occasion, Episode 1–17, the theme is Boléro. How should it be performed? How can they understand or describe themselves within this theme? They have studied and practiced for a long time. In seventeen scenes, crazy wigs and experiments they explore and analyse different relationships, movements, identities, truths and lies. And theatre itself, that of stepping in and out of different roles. Different Boléros are found, pre-recorded and performed live with musicians. Gradually Ravel´s is heard too as a bolerian way of breathing
... What will happen in episode 18–35?
Watch a video clip from Episode 17
Photos from Episode 17
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