Rituals: Lifar, Binyamini and Pina Bausch at the Opéra Bastille

Rituels brings together three choreographic voices in ballet: Serge Lifar, Shahar Binyamini and Pina Bausch. The Paris Opera Ballet’s program pairs a tribute to the French school with the addition to the company’s repertoire of Boléro X, set to music by Maurice Ravel.

With Suite en blanc, created in 1943, Serge Lifar creates a suite of neoclassical variations set to music by Édouard Lalo. Movement and technique take center stage. This revival marks the 40th anniversary of the choreographer’s death.

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Trained at the Batsheva Dance Company, Shahar Binyamini takes a collective, physical approach to the musical repetition in Boléro. The addition of his Boléro X to the repertoire is the new feature of the evening, alongside two works already part of the company’s history.

The Rite of Spring by Pina Bausch, created in 1975 to Igor Stravinsky’s score, rounds out the program. On a floor covered with earth, the dance pits the group against the sacrifice of the Chosen One. The program thus moves from the construction of classical lines to works in which repetition and the relationships between the individual and the collective shape the movement.

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