Dance play

The sun smoulders lazily, high in the sky. Ash hangs in the air and covers the ground. Some sort of disaster has occurred. We await an impending solar eclipse and hope that it will bring relief. The group of people scurries secretively back and forth, lurks, and stands still. After a long darkness, the blazing light of the sun finally breaks through. Following a change in the climate, the hue of the horizon promises new hope for the relaxed nature of a midsummer’s night.

For more than 40 years the Cullberg Ballet has been one of the best known European dance ensembles, founded by Birgit Cullberg in 1967 and headed by her son, Mats Ek, from 1985-93. From 1993-95 Carolyn Carlson shaped the company. The Swedish choreographer Johan Inger, formerly soloist at the Kungliga Baletten (Royal Ballet) in Stockholm and at the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) in The Hague, had been the artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet from 2003-08. After numerous shorter plays »Point of eclipse« is his first feature-length choreography. He led the Cullberg Ballet from the Neoclassic to a new modern ballet language.

The fantastic 15 dancers are accompanied by the futuristic music of Jean-Louis Huhta and the magical lighting of Jens Sethzman, which make the piece an incredibly compelling production. Following its one guest performance in 1970, the Cullberg Ballet is back in Leipzig after 39 years.

»It is incredibly compact, when atoms escape one by one and finally explode. All that remains is ash, which flies around and waits to reignite« (Cecilia Olsson, Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, 04.11.2007).