Joffrey Ballet presents Alexander Ekman’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a work in which dreams, light and imagination unfold through the traditions surrounding the summer solstice.

Founded in New York in 1956 by Robert Joffrey and now based in Chicago, Joffrey Ballet ranks among America’s leading dance companies. Renowned for its technical excellence, the company has cultivated a repertoire that embraces both classical training and contemporary creation, reflecting the cultural diversity of the United States.

A leading figure on today’s international dance scene, Alexander Ekman has developed a choreographic language shaped by humour, precision and a keen sense of theatrical invention. Following the success of his spectacular A Swan Lake at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and his direction of the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, he returns to Paris with his distinctly Shakespearean A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Here, he continues his exploration of a world where reality gradually gives way to imagination.

Set to a score by Mikael Karlsson, the ballet reflects on the nature of dreams and the challenge of bringing them to the stage. How can a space where anything is possible be made tangible without losing its intensity or coherence? Ekman answers by creating a succession of dreamlike tableaux, balancing collective energy, poetic apparitions and moments of suspension. Dreams themselves become choreographic material – shifting, elusive and constantly transforming.

Brought vividly to life by the virtuosity of Joffrey Ballet, the work showcases a company equally at ease in the classical tradition and the most inventive contemporary idioms. A journey into Alexander Ekman’s imagination, where the night of the summer solstice becomes a theatre of metamorphosis.

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