Dancing Beethoven

Only a humanist like Maurice Béjart could pull off a dance piece to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Now, some fifty years after its initial premiere, Ballet Béjart Lausanne, led by Gil Roman, who danced in the original production, sets out to reimagine the monumental work for a new generation. Aguirre documents the history of the piece, the dedication of the current dancers, and the complexity of a daunting multicultural collaboration between Lausanne, the Tokyo Ballet, and the Israel Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. The result is an exhilarating blend of music and dance.

Screening with:

Being and Nothingness
Alejandro Alvarez, Canada,  2016, 8m
Using Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential philosophy for a springboard, the Canadian choreographer Guillaume Côté creates tension with his solo set on National Ballet of Canada prima ballerina Greta Hodgkinson to Philip Glass’s hypnotic “Metamorphosis Four.”