Dazzling ballet dancers from Germany in town

If you have always been intrigued by ballet performance then you have a chance to be part a show that takes you right to the preparation routine of dancers with unique insights from the training and rehearsal process to the presentation of a completed choreography on stage.

Ballet performance comes to Nairobi with the internationally renowned German dance company Semperoper Ballet staging two shows this weekend at the Kenya National Theatre.

First time

This tour that started earlier in the week in South Africa and is organised by the Goethe Institute, is the first by this group of dancers to sub-Saharan Africa. Their objective is to demonstrate the making of a ballet production through a combination of demonstration and interaction.

Principal dancer Raphael Coumes-Marquet will give information on the dance step sequences to the audience on such technicalities like the choreographic development of a ballet production.

Coumes-Marquet who is French has been with Semperoper Ballet since 2006 and has a diverse repertoire of creations and film productions. He has performed at various international ballet galas and festivals in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Spain, UK, France, Russia and Lithuania.

The two concerts that take place at the Kenya National Theatre tonight and tomorrow afternoon will be based on various pas de deux (dance duet) by William Forsythe, one of the most influential contemporary ballet choreographers.
Forsythe is an American dancer who is resident in Germany and is internationally known for his work with various dance companies around the world.

In a career spanning more than 40 years, he has earned recognition for transforming ballet into a dynamic art form transcending its traditional association with the classical repertoire. His own dance ensemble Forsythe Company is based in Dresden, the same city as the Semperoper Ballet and he has had a long association with the group. These ties have been strengthened since one of his protégés Aaron S. Watkin took over as Artistic Director of Semperoper Ballet in 2006.

Before taking up the post in Dresden, Watkin had been initiated to a new vocabulary of dance as Principal Dancer with Ballet Frankfurt and as a personal choreographic assistant to Forsythe.

Redefining dance

Under his creative leadership, Semperoper Ballet seeks to remove the barriers that exist between classical and contemporary dance styles and redefining dance as a product of diverse influences. Watkins describes his artistic vision for the ensemble as a journey towards opening people’s minds in search of a greater art. Forsythe has created a series of pas de deux for Semperoper Ballet titled “Neue Suite” set to the musical works of classical composers, George Frideric Handel, Luciano Berio, Johann Sebastian Bach and Gavin Bryars.

The piece also features additional extracts from Forsythe’s 1990 ballet “Slingerland Pas de Deux” and “New Sleep” . World-class dancers, Courtney Richardson, Caroline Beach, Joseph Hernandez and Johannes Schmidt will demonstrate these dance routines by performing some of the choreography by Forsythe.

Richardson, an American who has been with Semperoper since 2013, is also a principal dancer with the ensemble while her compatriot Beach is a coryphée (leading dancer).

Hernandez is also an American and has been with the Ballet since 2014 while Second Soloist Schmidt is an award-winning German dancer who has performed with the ballet company since 2010.

The dancers will demonstrate which corrections are needed during the execution of their moves and how they coordinate amongst themselves. Apart from the demonstration the audience will also get a chance to ask the artists questions to get a better understanding of ballet.

60 dancers

This is part of the Forsythe Outreach Education Programme that has involved a similar event in South Africa earlier this week.

The Semperoper Ballet was founded at the beginning of the 19th century and boasts a rich and varied repertoire of classical and contemporary creations by leading ballet choreographers like David Dawson and Alexander Ekman.

The company comprises some 60 dancers and delivers more than seventy performances at the Semperoper, one of the most beautiful and historic opera houses in the world.

The company also performs in other venues and on tours abroad in pursuit of their mission to cross the boundaries between traditional classical and contemporary ballet.

Their first performance in Nairobi takes place tonight September 30 at the Kenya National Theatre at 6pm and there will be a second show at the same venue tomorrow October 1 at 12 pm.