Festival Opening: Two dance pieces

The beginning and end of all being. Eternal affection and poetry on the one hand, war and suffering on the other. Both the dance pieces, »Annonciation« (»Annunciation«) and »N«, by Angelin Preljocaj – one of France’s leading choreographers – show two options for modern dance art, which can hardly be more different, yet which form a consistent whole.

Whereas »Annonciation« deals with the divine origin of life through the annunciation scene between Mary and the angel, »N« shows the profane destruction of life. »Annonciation« represents one of the most moving dance duets of recent dance history. »N« (French: haine, namely N = hate), by contrast, is a piece that is exceptional for its harshness against otherwise harmony-focused French dance: the fusion of choreography with audio-visual abstraction creates an overall work of art, which simultaneously contains both social controversy and artistic finesse.

Angelin Preljocaj, born in Sucy-en-Brie near Paris in 1957 as the son of Albanian parents, graduated from an education in classical and modern dance. With the Ballet Preljocaj, he founded his own company in 1984, which has been based in the southern French town of Aix-en-Provence since 1996. Preljocaj has repeatedly worked for Europe’s large opera houses, such as the Paris Opera and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. He showed »Helikopter« and »MC 14/22 (Ceci est mon corps)« (»Mk 14,22 (This is my body)«) at the euro-scene Leipzig in 2001.