{"id":52953,"date":"2021-10-13T11:01:50","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T08:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=52953"},"modified":"2021-10-13T11:01:50","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T08:01:50","slug":"czech-national-ballet-opens-israeli-opera-dance-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=52953","title":{"rendered":"Czech National Ballet Opens Israeli Opera Dance Season"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bella Figura – The Czech National Ballet\/Photo: Sergej Gherciu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In an exciting return to live dance performances, the Israeli Opera announces the opening of the 2021 \u2013 2022 dance season with a tribute to Ji\u0159\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n, one of the most renowned and influential choreographers of our time. The Czech National Ballet will present Bridges of Time<\/em>, a selection of dances choreographed by Kyli\u00e1n. This unique program was created to celebrate Kyli\u00e1n’s 50 years of artistic creation. Performances will take place at the Israeli Opera from November 25 \u2013 27, 2021.<\/p>\n

Kyli\u00e1n, who was born in Prague in 1947, states on his website, that his first love was not for dance, but rather for the circus, and as a very young boy he wanted to be an acrobat. Yet his first experience of a dance performance was, in his words, “overwhelming”, and at age 9 he began to study dance at the School of the National Ballet Prague. In 1967 he received a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London, there he encountered choreographer John Cranko, who invited him to join the Stuttgart Ballet, which was where he began to create his first works as a choreographer. Kyli\u00e1n created three ballets for the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) \u2013 Viewers, Stoolgame and La Cath\u00e9drale Engloutie, and in 1975 was appointed the Artistic Director for the company, a position which he held until 2004. In 1978 he founded NDT 2 for young dancers, and in 1991 he founded NDT 3 for dancers over 40. I was fortunate enough to see, and write about Last Touch First<\/em>, a work choreographed by Ji\u0159\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n with Michael Schumacher for NDT 3, when they performed in Tel Aviv in 2009: “A handwritten invitation on cream colored paper, Ji\u0159\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n and Michael Schumacher\u2019s Last Touch First<\/em> moves through the fabric of time, unfolding a tale of passion contained, blood surging under the skin\u2026 The expressive virtuosity of the dancers sustains the intensity of the piece throughout, drawing the viewer into the reverie, with only the chime of a wineglass to remind us: tempus fugit. No matter how slowly we move, each movement, each passing moment moves into the past.” (read the full review here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bridges of Time<\/em> will include four works by Kyli\u00e1n, created between 1987 \u2013 2008 for NDT: Bella Figura<\/em>, Gods & Dogs<\/em>, Petite Mort<\/em>, and Sechs T\u00e4nze<\/em>. The works were jointly selected by Kyli\u00e1n and the Czech National Ballet.<\/p>\n

Bella Figura<\/strong> is described by Kyli\u00e1n as a search for beauty that encompasses all aspects of physical humanity, including, for the dancers an “acceptance of their deficiencies, doubts, vulnerabilities.”<\/p>\n

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