Modern ballet show in two acts

Hans van Manen is one of the few choreographers who has succeeded in bringing widespread popularity to modern ballet by combining classical ballet with modern dance and other movement techniques. He crafted his piece 5 Tangos to the music of Astor Piazzolla. A true audience favourite, the work flows with fiery energy. It is tango, but with a little something extra. The choreography eschews the familiar stereotypical movements: in this elegant dance piece composed for seven couples and deeply rooted in the passion and drama of tango, as well as of Piazzolla himself, the cool formality of classical ballet fuses with elements of the language of modern dance.
Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar are one of the most exciting and original creative pairs in contemporary dance today. Jerusalem-born Eyal formed her own ensemble, the L-E-V Company, in 2013. Her creative and life partner, Gai Behar, is a Tel Aviv DJ. They created Bedroom Folk for the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 1) in 2015. A little over half an hour in length, the piece places equal emphasis on music, dance and lighting. Combining streamlined, unique and exotic dance elements and making use of evocative colours and lighting, the remarkable and captivating atmosphere of this work his simultaneously serious and madcap. A kind of organised chaos that points the way to the future.
American ballet artist and choreographer William Forsythe started creating his own works at the Stuttgart Ballet. He considered George Balachine to be his greatest role model. Although his works typically use classical technique as a starting point, he is able to take the ideas further, often to the point of extremes. An example of this is his 11-minute piece The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude: created for three male and two female dancers and with no storyline, it alternates between solos, pas de deux, pas de trois and ensembles, set to the virtuosic and sublime last movement of Schubert's Ninth Symphony.

Presented by: National Dance Theatre