SNOW WHITE

CREATION at the Biennale de la danse de Lyon

Thursday 25 September 2008

(Tour schedule in back page)

Piece for 26 dancers

Choreography Angelin Preljocaj

Costumes Jean Paul Gaultier

Music Gustav Mahler

Additional music 79 D

Set design Thierry Leproust

Lighting Patrick Riou assisted by Cécile Giovansili and Sébastien Dué

Associate Artistic Director Youri Van den Bosch

Rehearsal assistant Claudia De Smet

Choreologist Dany Lévêque

Absailing trainer Alexandre del Perugia

Dancers at creation:

Coproduction Biennale de la danse de Lyon / Conseil Général du Rhône (Lyon, France),

Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris, France), Grand Théâtre de Provence (Aix-en-

His Snow White in Thierry Leproustʼs magical sets is a delight, especially his disturbing forest and his mirror, black as an abyss. Everything is perfectly constructed, the roles well cast, the symbols appropriately handled, and the dance breathes even the loving or mortal “pas de deux”. “I wanted to take the risk”, said Angelin Preljocaj, “of creating a great contemporary, romantic ballet.” Goal achieved with apple and mirror, dwarves (sexually timid, if we think of the pornographic distortions of the tale), gambolling deer, evil elves … Itʼs all there but avoids turning into Disneyland. Jean Paul Gaultier, who designed the costumes, has avoided too childlike a touch. (…) The designers donʼt seem too attracted by the Grimm brothers version of the princess. They prefer the wicked stepmother, Domina sheathed in black, majestic. Indeed, it is she who ends the ballet with a raging solo that hardly gives sweet little Snow White a chance, caught as she is in the register of evanescence or fainting – even if the prince in his idle toreador costume comes to defend her. This balletic version of the tale is neat and well thoughtout. Highly enjoyable. Marie-Christine Vernay (Libération, 27 September 08)

His photo book contains some astonishingly beautiful sequences. The circle dance with the dwarves (miner-monks) and Snow White jumping on their buttocks and clapping their hands makes us smile. The duet between the girl and her wicked stepmother – where she shoves the apple into her mouth whilst making her dance, is perfect in its sadistic voluptuousness. Preljocajʼs writing, always on the slant, makes unashamed use of classical quotation. Full of lively jumps, neat splits, whirling arms and multiple changes of direction, the score is scattered with turns, piqués and other academic steps. However, never have we seen a Snow White in such a low-cut dress. Though Jean Paul Gaultier has sumptuously (almost) managed to keep a low profile in the costumes, he does dare to dress Snow White in a thong. The heroineʼs transparent skin, her legs left bare to the top of her buttocks by a cleverly hanging costume, attracts the eye. This “décolleté” reminds us that sexuality is central to the tale. More than her beauty, the wicked queen knows that she will lose her sexual attraction. She must accept that she will grow old. At a time when facelifts cause confusion between ages, generations and seasons, this tale quite simply reminds us that time is inevitable, that daughter replaces mother, or stepmother. Thatʼs how life is: relentless. Rosita Boisseau (Le Monde, 28/29 September 08)

Snow White, reinvented by choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and couturier Jean Paul Gaultier, is a great popular ballet such as we have not seen since Béjart. With the 26 dancers in his company, Preljocaj has produced a modern romantic ballet. He has done away with all the sugary enchantment and, in the light of psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim, examines the Grimm brothers tale in depth. Between the three hunters and the seven dwarves, Snow White, dressed-undressed by Gaultier, could be seen as a real flirt, a touch brazen. (…) Technically magnificent, she has us enthralled in several pas de deux. (…) The tone is one of a sort of black magic: the dark sets offer a few treasures such as the climbing wall pierced with troglodytic holes from which rush the seven dwarves, gymnasts as much as dancers, and well-built. (…) Obviously thereʼs the wicked stepmother, around whom the main plot revolves: the tight choreography the Preljocaj has written for her is gripping when she questions her mirror (“Mirror, mirror…”) and even more so in her hysterical despair. Nicole Duault (Le Journal du Dimanche 28 September / 04 October 08)

On stage, twenty-six dancers give life to the costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier. The fashion revolutionary has designed some timeless outfits for the occasion. Snow Whiteʼs togadress and other designs of warrior nspiration are worth the journey in themselves. Thierry Leproustʼs sets serve the sequence of the story without being too obtrusive. The huge mirror that reflects Snow Whiteʼs beauty remains enigmatic. Whereas contemporary dance often tends towards the abstract, Angelin Preljocajʼs Snow White uses the visual to tell the story. Gustav Mahlerʼs music makes the performance lean towards the classical. Jean Paul Gaultierʼs contribution and the treatment of a universal myth make this contemporary ballet accessible to a broad public, especially as, despite the dark deeds, the romantic, fairytale aspect wins the day. Lisa Gougué (France Soir, 10 October 08)

Everything delights the eye in this tale brought up to be in line with current tastes. Thereʼs the forest in which Snow White gets lost, the trees with their enormous trunks casting frightening shadows in the half-light of the plateau. With their head-torches, the dwarves look like coalminers. Their house in the wall at the back of the stage looks like a troglodyte cave hewn out of the rock, as in Wagnerʼs opera Rheingold. They move up and down with a rope around their waist. The high point of this enchanting drama comes when the Queen, jealous of the heroineʼs beauty, forces her to eat the poisoned red apple. She puts it in her mouth and holds it there, using slow, relentless movements. The whole scene is reminiscent of expressionist cinema and the sequence is more mimed than danced. Angelin Preljocaj has opted for the adagietto from Mahlerʼs Fifth Symphony, when the prince discovers Snow White lying dead in her glass coffin. He uses this interpretation of the tale to look through a few pages of dance history. For example, the prince adopts the posture of the Nijinski Faun bowing down on the nymphʼs handkerchief … Muriel Steinmetz (LʼHumanité, 13 October 08)

The choreographer has had the intelligence to stick as closely as possible to the story and thus reproduce all its symbolic richness: the omnipresence of desire, the passage of time that transforms, murderous jealousy. The gestures are inventive, magnificently performed by Preljocajʼs troupe, and the staging is packed with wonderful ideas: for example, the heroineʼs transformation into an adult, growing in just a few seconds as a result of the clever substitution of performers, the stepmotherʼs flight, a metaphor for death, as she carries off her prey, the acrobatic, incredibly light movements of the troglodyte dwarves pirouetting vertically, and the princeʼs desperate duet with his loverʼs lifeless body … Everything about this ballet is well done: the costumes by an inspired Gaultier (the wicked stepmother perched on her high heels is devilishly sexy), Thierry Leproustʼs superb sets, which also make use of symbols, the use of Mahlerʼs symphonies, which appear to have been written for the drama…(…) Snow White revived by Preljocaj is a dazzling jewel, an enchanted spectacle that celebrates the reconciliation between contemporary creation and narration, aesthetics and, above all, meaning. Paul Hilarion (Classica répertoire, December 08)

Itʼs so well done: a wonderful pas de deux with a sleeping Snow White, potholing dwarves who perform incredible acrobatic feats, like elastonauts, and costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier designed one by one on moving dancers, all combining to conjure up the melancholy, violent world of Grimmʼs fairy tales. Claire Chazal (Figaro magazine, 18/ 24 October 08)