La Valse

With my choreographic piece La Valse (The Waltz), I am continuing my confrontation with some of the most iconic works in music and dance history.
After Sacre – The Rite of Spring, Swan Lake, 4 Acts, Boléro Variations and L’Après-midi, I will this time be working with an orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel which was first presented to a Paris audience in 1920. It was not until 1928 that the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska (sister to Vaslav Nijinsky) created a one act ballet to it, using the theme “La Valse.”

In my interpretation, I will use both the orchestral and the piano versions of the work. The Belgian pianist Guy Vandromme will be in attendance at each performance to play. Other waltzes will also be integrated into the piece, among them the Viennese waltzes which were the basis for Ravel’s piece. As in my previous pieces, La Valse will be developed first in rehearsal, and its layout will not follow any predefined choreography.

I first began collaborating with the pianist Guy Vandromme in Brussels in 2006, with a performance at the Kaaitheater of Sacre – The Rite of Spring and the piano (this particular production also toured to the Sydney Festival in 2013). I have also shared a long artistic journey with the dancers I am planning to work with on this production: Marion Ballester, Emmanuel Eggermont and Takashi Ueno will be joining me on La Valse, and we are also adding Ji Hye Chung. My collaborator Luca Giacomo Schulte will also be joining us on this adventure.

Raimund Hoghe – Janvier 2016

La Valse
Creation November 23th-26th, 2016 at Festival d’Automne – Paris

Concept, choreography and set design Raimund Hoghe
Artistic collaboration Luca Giacomo Schulte
Dancers Marion Ballester, Ji Hye Chung, Emmanuel Eggermont, Raimund Hoghe, Luca Giacomo Schulte, Takashi Ueno, and Ornella Balestra as guest
Piano Guy Vandromme
Lighting Raimund Hoghe, Amaury Seval
Sound Silas Bieri
Photography Rosa Frank
Administration, production Mathieu Hillereau, Les Indépendances

Musics interpeted by Leonard Bernstein, Ferenc Fricsay, Joseph Schmidt, Fritzi Massary, Herbert von Karajan, Erich Kleiber, Erna Sack, Teresa Stratas, Josephine Baker, Juliette Greco, Vera Lynn, Patti Page, Colin Farrell, Francoise Hardy, Hélène Grimaud, Rod Stewart, Audrey Hepburn, Odetta and Guy Vandromme.

Production: Raimund Hoghe — Hoghe & Schulte GbR (Düsseldorf)
Supported by: Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Fonds Transfabrik – Fonds franco-allemand pour le spectacle vivant.
With support from Teatro Municipal do Porto (PT), Centre national de danse contemporaine of Angers (FR), La ménagerie de verre of Paris (FR) under the auspices of Studiolab, and tanzhaus nrw of Düsseldorf (DE).
Special thanks to agnès b. Paris (FR).

Credits :
Rosa-Frank.com
Hervé Véronèse – Centre Pompidou