Ikigai, a triple bill presented by Cape Town City Ballet, is inspired by the Japanese philosophy of life purpose, life happiness and life peace.
Suitably depicted in those ideas are ballets by three generations of award-winning choreographers:
- Jiří Kylián’s percussive, intense FALLING ANGELS;
- Sir Frederick Ashton’s charming twilight skating scene, LES PATINEURS and
- Kenneth Tindall’s evocative and moving POLARITY. in collaboration with the artists of CTCB.
FALLING ANGELS is one of Jiří Kylián’s mesmerising masterworks for eight women, bristling with the power of the female persona. Set to an hypnotic Steve Reich score and inspired by the percussive musical rituals of West Africa, FALLING ANGELS is scintillating in its complexity and richness of movement. Staged in 2021 on CTCB by Elke Schepers, press comments included:
“mesmerising…this was rhythmic, fluid, contemporary dance of the type that takes you to another place” (Calloffthesearch.com)
“Falling Angels is a gripping piece, overflowing with exuberance, yet exquisitely structured and danced…[it] is so picturesque (almost any moment could be frozen in time to render a gorgeous photograph), it opens itself up to many different interpretations, some light, some dark” (Times Live)
“Falling Angels, was nothing like I had seen before ….. a feat of concentration, synchronization, and athleticism”(Broadway World)
Choreographed by iconic British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton and performed to music composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, LES PATINEURS (The Skaters) features a party of ice skaters on a frozen pond joyfully depicting Ashton’s virtuosic choreography of charming divertissements in a beautiful trellised setting. Delightful in its humour, lyrical adagio of the lead couple, as the “spills and thrills” of the Blue Boy and friends show masterfully the multiple pirouettes and leaps. As the snow starts to fall the skaters glide away. LES PATINEURS is staged on CTCB by Isabel McMeekan, who has performed around the world with The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. She is currently participating in the Frederick Ashton Foundation’s shadowing scheme set up to train the Ashton repetiteurs of the future. Cape Town City Ballet also welcomes Tzu-Chao Chou, Principal of Birmingham Royal Ballet to the Cape Town stage for the first time. He will perform the role of The Blue Boy in LES PATINEURS at selected performances of IKIGAI.
Award-winning, Kenneth Tindall’s POLARITY is inspired by the suggestion that opposites are interconnected and everything is duel, a Yin and a Yang where harmony and balance emerges and where the outcome can only be peace. Tindall, who is Resident Choreographer and Director of Digital for Northern Ballet, created POLARITY for Cape Town City Ballet in 2019, and excitingly returns to stage this new, extended version. International Guest Artist Brandon Lawrence, Principal of Birmingham Royal Ballet, will partner Cape Town City Ballet’s Kirstel Paterson as the principal couple in the featured pas de deux in Sir Frederick Ashton’s LES PATINEURS, which forms part of the triple bill IKIGAI. Press comments about POLARITY include:
“Polarity keeps the temperature in the room on high as it pushes the dancers to the edge physically and artistically”(Calloffthesearch.com)
“a display of interconnection and dualism” (Broadway World)
“a striking ballet” (The Cape Robyn)
Ikigai is part of Cape Town City Ballet’s Winter Season running until 28 August. The programme includes Veronica Paeper’s ROMEO AND JULIET alongside IKIGAI.
ROMEO AND JULIET will be presented at Artscape from 4 to 28 August | IIKIGAI will be presented at Artscape from 17 to 28 August.
WHAT: IKIGAI
WHERE: Artscape Theatre Centre, D F Malan St, Foreshore, Cape Town 8001
WHEN:
17 August @19h30 (With CPO under the baton of Guest Conductor Jonathan Lo and the role of Blue Boy in Les Patineurs performed by Tzu-Chao Chou with Brandon Lawrence and Kirstel Paterson as the principal couple in the featured pas de deux)
18 August @ 19h30 (To recorded music and the role of Blue Boy in Les Patineurs performed by Gabriel Ravenscroft)
20, 24 and 26 August @19h30 (To recorded music and the role of Blue Boy in Les Patineurs performed by Tzu-Chao Chou)
25 August @15h00: (To recorded music and the role of Blue Boy in Les Patineurs performed by Gabriel Ravenscroft)
27 August @ 15h00 (To recorded music and the role of Blue Boy in Les Patineurs performed by Gabriel Ravenscroft)
TICKETS: R175 – R475 | Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695 or Computicket.
