Beethoven 7 – Sasha Waltz

Off-site at the Maison des arts de Créteil.

Richard Wagner described Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 as a true “apotheosis of the dance”, thereby underlining the predominance of rhythm and bodily momentum in the very architecture of the work.

André Boucourechliev, As part of its European tour, the Göteborgs Operans Danskompani presents Hammer at the Théâtre du Châtelet.

Performed for the very first time in France, Hammer is the third creation by choreographer Alexander Ekman for this Swedish contemporary dance company, under the artistic direction of Katrín Hall.

Equally at home working on the work of his compatriot Ingmar Bergman or with Alicia Keys, invited around the world by the most prestigious cultural institutions, the Swedish choreographer has, in a little under a decade, established himself as one of the most inventive creators of the present day, and he was also entrusted with staging the ceremony for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

From the museum to the opera house, by way of the theatre or cinema, Alexander Ekman plays across every register, with, as their lowest common denominator, a profound sense of wit and great humanity.

Hammer was created in 2022, for and by the dancers of the Göteborgs Operans Danskompani.

Hailing from twenty different countries, the thirty-one performers serve a monumental work, conceived as a two-act fresco that questions, not without humour, the missteps of contemporary societies.

From order to chaos, from the individual to the collective, from the sixties to today, Hammer questions the role of technology as much as that of ideology, around a resolutely humanist stance.

Composed by Mikael Karlsson, the score for this ballet blends recorded sounds from the string section of the Göteborg Opera orchestra with synthesised sounds from several keyboards, behind which the choreographer's own hands sometimes lurk!