A ballet in two acts
Creation by the Ballet du Capitole on 24 October 2013
Music Louis-Claude Daquin, Franz Josef Haydn, György Ligeti, Maurice Ravel
Choreography and staging Kader Belarbi
Assisted by Susanna Campo
Adaptation of the tale Beauty and the Beast Josseline Le Bourhis Sets and costumes Valérie Berman
Sets assistant Sophie Kitching
Assistant costumes Jean-Jacques Delmotte
Lighting Marc Parent
Kader Belarbi was indeed inspired to write The Beast and Beauty by Madam Leprince de Beaumont’s famous tale (1756). But here, the inversion of the title testifies to the reinterpretation of the fairy tale. In his ballet, the choreographer turns this fable into a symbol of adolescent rebelliousness, the acceptance of differences and the awakening of desire and love.
The Beast and Beauty is thus a story of defiance: the Beast becomes human - he is closer to a character who reveals the animal within us than an animal himself - while Beauty overcomes her repulsion and breaks free of her inhibitions to find the path of the heart and the body, and open herself up to the other.
Somewhere between a journey of initiation and enchantment, the dancers of the Ballet du Capitole were delighted to embrace this ballet - developed around an eclectic score and using unexpected costumes and stage design - and make it their own.
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Ballet in two acts on a theme by Kader Belarbi
inspired by Lord Byron’s poem The Corsair (1814)
Creation by the Ballet du Capitole on 16 May 2013
Music Adolphe Adam, Anton Arenski, David Coleman,
Edouard Lalo, Massenet, Jean Sibelius
Choreography and staging Kader Belarbi
Sets Sylvie Olivé
Sets assistant Camille Ansquer
Costumes Olivier Bériot
Lighting Marion Hewlett
The huge success of Lord Byron’s The Corsair, right from its publication in 1814, fed a taste for the exotic in artists and audiences throughout the 19th century.
Byron’s poem has been an endless source of inspiration for numerous choreographers, but no other French choreographic version has seen the light of day since that of Jules Mazilier in 1856. This choreographic adaptation of Byron’s poem, set to music by Adolphe Adam, was produced for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris. At the end of the 19th century, Marius Petipa created his own version for the Imperial Ballet in Saint-Petersburg.
Today, Kader Belarbi has rearranged the narrative of the initial poem, creating a great epic ballet that is both academic and with an oriental twist. The choreography plays on the virtuosity of the ensembles and the solo variations, the spirit of romantic ballet and its intertwining, the adventures of the action and exotic feel of the entertainment.
The Corsair
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Entrelacs
Interlaces
Premiere by the Ballet du Capitole on 21 February 2013
Music Arvo Pärt, Iannis Xenakis
Choreography Kader Belarbi
Stage design and lighting Rémi Nicolas
Costumes Joop Stokvis
The body becomes a paintbrush under the choreographer’s hand, moved by a rhythmic breath, which is the beginning of everything. Shapes are outlined and drawn like so many metamorphoses. Through the “spatial harmonies” of
Arvo Pärt and the “graphic rhythms” of Iannis Xenakis, poetry of interweaving is revealed.
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