Beethoven 7 – Sasha Waltz

Off-site at the Maison des arts de Créteil.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, was described by Richard Wagner as a true “apotheosis of dance”, thus highlighting the predominance of rhythm and bodily impetus 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.

Capable of working with his compatriot Ingmar Bergman's work as well as with Alicia Keys, invited worldwide by the most prestigious cultural institutions, the Swedish choreographer has, in just under a decade, established himself as one of the most inventive creators of the present day, and he was also entrusted with the realization of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games ceremony.

From museums to opera, via theatre or cinema, Alexander Ekman plays on all registers with, as the smallest 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 wanderings of contemporary societies.

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

Composed by Mikael Karlsson, the music for this ballet mixes the recorded sounds of the string section of the Göteborg Opera orchestra with the synthesized sounds of several keyboards behind which, sometimes, hide the hands of the choreographer himself!