The Great Chevalier and The Pigeon Dance

The renowned Luxembourg National Folk Ballet returns to KLAP Maison pour la danse to mark the 50th anniversary of The Pigeon Dance, the legendary ballet by Josiane Bal, former director of the company, which was inspired by the iconic folk dance of the same name. That original dance remains at the heart of the indelible bonds linking KLAP with the National Ballet. The evening celebrates this unique lineage in two parts.

In the first part, Mr Chevalier, the enfant terrible of contemporary folk dance and the new artistic director of the BNFL, returns to this stage steeped in history to pay tribute to the famous Pigeon Dance that inspired this legendary ballet, and to the powerful links between KLAP and the Ballet. In a rare, intimate and emotionally intense performance, this ambitious director and choreographer brings to life several emblematic classics from the repertoire. This exceptional encounter is followed by a book signing with Mr Chevalier.

The second part presents the ballet itself. Created in 1976 by Josiane Bal while she was directing the Luxembourg National Folk Ballet, The Pigeon Dance was an operatic ballet centred on the fantasies of a pigeon dreaming of being crushed by a goat. Josiane Bal's legacy remains inseparable from the tragic circumstances of her death during the first performance, after which the ballet was lost and survived only through disputed memories.

Today, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Pigeon Dance and in commemoration of Madame Bal's death, Simone Mousset, the company's executive director, returns to the stage to embody a personal and intimate version of this lost gem of Luxembourgish folklore. Set to a new score by the French composer Nosfell, The Pigeon Dance returns as a feminist remnant of Luxembourgish folklore, resonating across generations of women artists whose creative stories have been res