Hammer

Dance at the Châtelet! Choreographies by Alexander Ekman.

I don't care what an Ekman piece is supposed to look like. I try to stay on course. In the same way, I try to find the most accurate expression for each of the performers in a show.

Alexander Ekman, 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 on the oeuvre of his compatriot Ingmar Bergman 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 was also entrusted with the realisation 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 blends the recorded sounds of the string section of the Gothenburg Opera orchestra with the synthesised sounds of several keyboards, behind which, at times, hide the hands of the choreographer himself!