Over the last 15 years the Lyon Opera Ballet has built up a contemporary dance
repertoire with a large number of pieces in a wide variety of styles, commissioning
works from young choreographers, and performing pieces by major modern choreographers.
Some of the new productions of the great classics have toured the world, such
as Cinderella and Coppelia by Maguy Marin, and Romeo and Juliet
from Angelin Preljocaj. The company’s repertoire includes many American choreographers:
Trisha Brown, Bill T. Jones, Ralph Lemon, Karole Armitage, Lucinda Childs, Susan
Marshall, Stephen Petronio, to name but a few. It also includes French and European
choreographers such as Jean-Claude Gallotta, Dominique Bagouet, Stéphanie Aubin,
Hervé Robbe, Lionel Hoche, Joachim Schlömer, and Tero Saarinen, and not forgetting
some of the most beautiful pieces by Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Nacho
Duato and Ohad Naharin.
With a worldwide reputation for the high quality of its dancers, the Lyon Opera
Ballet is also famous for its artistic policy and its touring policy. Yorgos Loukos,
director of the company since 1988, has established just the right balance between
major pieces from the contemporary repertoire and the creation of new pieces.
In February 1998 he devoted an entire evening to Jiri Kylian, including amongst
others the unforgettable Petite Mort. In June 1998 he brought two very
beautiful pieces by Mats Ek into the repertoire, Solo for Two and Carmen.
The 1998-1999 season was devoted to creation and risk, with 8 new pieces, including
7 international creations, 3 of which were commissioned from members of the
company. No-one could forget the magic of Meryl Tankard’s Bolero (December
1998), or the daring of Frédéric Flamand in his EJM 2 (September 1998),
or the poetry of Saarinen’s Gaspard (February 1999). Yorgos Loukos then
returned to the contemporary repertoire with, at the end of February 2000, Quartette
by William Forsythe, and Trisha Brown’s Newark, whose introduction into
the repertoire represents an achievement for the Lyon Opera Ballet. The 2000-2001
season has seen the entry of two pieces from Ohad Naharin into the repertoire,
Tabula rasa and Black Milk, and from Nacho Duato, Remansos
and Without Words, as well as two new creations, one from the young choreographer
Pascal Touzeau, Final Lecture, and the other Sini from Tero
Saarinen.
In December 2001,
the Lyon Opera Ballet presented a new production of the Nutcracker by Dominique
Boivin, and in March 2002 an evening of previously unknown material, including
Trisha Brown’s piece Astral Converted, Un ballo from Jiri Kylian
and a new creation by the American choreographer John Jasperse. To end the season,
Yorgos Loukos is presenting an original programme to the public, Service à tous les étages,
with the Opera Ballet and other companies (Maguy Marin, Tero Saarinen, Lionel
Hoche, Boris Charmatz, and others), on the stage of the Lyon Opera, at the Amphitheatre,
and in the rehearsal rooms which are not normally open to the public, with pieces
ranging from solos to large choreographic ensembles.
The Lyon Opera Ballet entered the international scene in 1987 with Cinderella,
and since then has toured worldwide with unfailing success.
The Lyon National Opera Ballet is supported by the Regional Council of the Rhône
area, and for some of its tours by the AFAA, Association Française d'Action Artistique
(Cultural and artistic association) - Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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