3 dancers – classical, hip hop and contemporary – combine, confront and intertwine their movements with 4 musicians. The result is a choreography in which the spirit of the waltz lurks, and energy flows between arts and aesthetics, sounds and movements. In this flamboyant ballet, the 7 artists tell us how the waltz and polka, originally popular, spread to all the courts of Europe and beyond, propelling Strauss to superstar status. They ask the audience about the permeability of genres, and explore how the dance moves from the street to the concert hall.
We know his waltzes, his polkas, his operettas, but what did Johann Strauss leave us of his creativity? What did he pass on? Initiated? Many of his contemporaries and successors were fascinated by this peerless melodist, admired him and drew inspiration from him: Brahms, Verdi, Richard Strauss, but also Webern and Berg. Let’s try to link them together, interpreting Lehàr, Helmessberger and Lumbye, and let the Strauss imprint emerge from all these aesthetics. A new work by Charles-David Wajnberg will open gaps in the concert’s timeline, bringing the clarinet’s now-electronic sonorities to the melodic writing of the late 19th century.