DIALOGUES II
Contemporary Pas de deux evening

DUET FROM A SORT OF…
Choreography: Mats EK
Performed by : Johnny McMillan et Clotilde Tran
Music : Henryk Górecki, Concerto for Harpsichord and String Quartet: II. Vivace
Lights : Ellen Ruge
Costumes : Maria Geber

COUCH
French Premiere
Samantha Lynch | Choreography and set design
Dancers : Anaïs Touret & Douwe Dekkers (Norwegian National Ballet )
Music : Georges Bizet, L’Arlésienne, Suite n°1 & Suite n°2
Costumes : Bregje van Balen
Lighting creation : Paul Vidar Sævarang

MUD OF SORROW
Akram Khan | choreography
Dancers : Aishwarya Raut et Claudio Cangialosi
Stager and Principal Coach: Mavin Khoo
Music :
-Mud of Sorrow : U Lamentu di Ghjesù, Corsican folk song.
Performed and arranged by : Nina Harries et Raaheel Hussain
Poeme : Do You Remember? – Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Ingénieur du son : Camilo Tirado
Sound design and dressing : Aditya Prakash

INSPIRED BY INTO THE HAIRY
Sharon Eyal | choreography
Dancers : Johnny McMillan and Juan Gil (S-E-D Sharon Eyal | Gai Behar)
Co-creator : Gai Behar
Music : Koreless
Lighting Creation : Alon Cohen

DUET FROM “A CUP OF COFFEE”
Choreography: Mats EK
Dancers : Ana Laguna et Yvan Auzely
Set Design & Costumes : Marie-Louise Ekman
Lights : Erik Berglund
Musique : Anders Hillborg – Cello Concerto – Published par Faber Music
World Premiere : 7th February 2025 at the Royal Swedish Opera

ABOUT THE SHOW

This second edition of Dialogues offers a spectacular evening of Pas de deux by four choreographers who define both the present and the future of dance. Through these duets, Dialogues II invites the audience to explore the diversity of contemporary dance, in all its richness and diversity of language. À travers ces 5 duos, Dialogues II propose au public d’explorer de manière inédite la diversité de la danse contemporaine, dans toute sa richesse et sa diversité de langage.

Mats Ek is one of the world’s leading contemporary dance choreographers and has marked dance history with his unique approach to movement, combining narrative, poetry and a touch of irony. His imaginative interpretations, frequently punctuated by humor and surrealism, have captivated audiences around the world. Mats Ek, the master storyteller of ballet, opens the evening’s program with his pas de deux A Sort Of…. The choreographer leads us into a burlesque fantasy, where bodies interact in a universe inspired by the work of Magritte. Between absurdity and delicacy, gravity and lightness, this “Pas de deux” plays with contrasts and surprises, blurring the boundaries and challenging the conventions of classical ballet.

Samantha Lynch, Principal Dancer of the Norwegian National Ballet, makes her choreographic debut in 2021 on the stage of the famous Oslo Opera House, with A Bolero. With Douwe Dekkers, she created several works, including for: jake, selected for London’s Royal Ballet’s “The International Draft Works” program, spotlighting emerging choreographers. Several major ballet companies have since commissioned her to create several works. With Couch, which will be performed for the first time in France, Samantha Lynch offers an energetic and humorous piece, in her own image. 2 performers and a sofa. That’s the choreographer’s genius in making us feel all the emotions linked to this indispensable accessory of our lives. A piece and an emerging choreographer to be discovered absolutely!

With his unique combination of kathak and contemporary dance, Akram Khan is now recognized as one of the most innovative choreographers on the international scene. Following the iconic success of Sacred Monsters, Akram Khan revisits this legendary duet with Mud of Sorrow. This new work explores the invisible connections that unite us with lost loved ones, memories and the shadows that surround us. Mud of Sorrow is a poetic journey between the visible and invisible, a dialogue between past and present. A captivating piece in which the shadows of the past converse with bodies in movement, and dance transcends time, like a string stretched between what has been and what remains.

Sharon Eyal possesses a perfect mastery of Ohad Naharin’s famous Gaga language, but she also distinguishes herself by her singular choreographic expression: both passionate and indubitably original. Alone or with Gai Behar, she has created a vast number of pieces for leading companies and for her own company : S-E-D. Tonight, she presents a new version of Into the Hairy, a piece in which she digs even deeper into the nature of her feelings, “baring the skin of her soul”. In this creation, she combines an instinctive, almost primitive dance style with technical mastery of the highest degree. Accompanied by a score by British composer Koreless, a member of the new generation of electronic musicians, “Inspired by Into the Hairy” invites us to reflect on authenticity and human fragility. Drawing on the roots of underground culture, where groove and energy are omnipresent, the choreography nonetheless remains anchored in classical technique pushed to its limits, sublimated by the L-E-V dancers, who deliver a stage presence of raw strength, charged with emotion.

The cherry on the cake, Mats Ek will close the evening with an excerpt from his latest creation, A Cup of Coffee, created for the Swedish Royal Ballet in Stockholm in February 2025, starring the incomparable Ana Laguna and Yvan Auzely!

Dialogues II is coproduction Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati | Ballet National de Norvège
Presented in the field of TranscenDanses: a co-réalization of Productions Internationales Albert Sarfati / Théâtre des Champs-Elysées