Commission from the CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz
Premiere April 2018
Choreography & concept: Martin Harriague
Dancers: Malandain Ballet Biarritz
Costumes: Mieke Kockelkorn
Music: Corelli, Vivaldi, Raupach, Araia
Choreographer Assistant: Shani Cohen
Description:
Drawing from the changing traits of legendary mermaids (sirènes in french), Martin Harriague plays with the myths to tell us what is deeply in his heart.
The ocean first, fascinating, threatening and threatened, with which he has maintained a certain intimacy since his childhood. Between humor and gravity, his choreographic odyssey reveals a humanity embarked in an adventure it doesn’t master. Under the gaze of Man, the shipwreck is imminent, as on the disastrous sea that threatens Ulysses and his sailors. The tumult of the tempest will reveal the between two worlds, carried by the ambiguity of the mermaids, resplendent and capricious, ingenuous or cruel. « The world of mermaids, I imagine it dark, bewitching, sometimes frightening, like the seabed that I have had the chance to observe several times in Australia and Indonesia, and their hydres waving in chiaroscuro » admits the choreographer.
But from these multiple temptations one day emerges the dreamed, unique creature that will make a man a Prince. Deprived of the clear sound of her voice and her fins by an enchantress who wants "what she has most beautiful" ... what does it matter? The wavering mermaid, now lover and muse, will learn other ways to reveal her soul and celebrate her happiness …
Thanks to the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, Thierry Malandain and his team, the dancers of Malandain Ballet Biarritz, Shani Cohen, Mieke Kockelkorn.