Here is the new mixed program of the Hungarian National Ballet! – PHOTOS, VIDEOS

For the first time before a live Budapest audience, the Hungarian National Ballet presents Don Juan by the famous French choreographer Thierry Malandain, and fire birds by Seregi Award-winning Marianna Venekei in their new mixed bill. In Balance is also offering pieces from the popular repertoire, Petite Mort and Six Dances by Jiří Kylián at the Eiffel Art Studios at the OPERA from June 3, 2022.

“Women naturally find their own loving food like birds find seeds or fish. The quote from Balm by Sándor Márai served as inspiration for Marianna Venekei create your own choreography for Bird of Fire, the famous ballet music by Igor Stravinsky. The plot-free show transfers the witty, ironic vibe of Márai’s lyrics as it depicts relationships between men and women by featuring seven types of women: the dynamic amazon, the elegant diva, the passionate lover, the shy young lady, the connoisseur. any lady, the woman living in the world of opposites and the always tortured lover.

The visual design and movements of the thirty-minute show are determined by an abstract setting dominating the stage.

Don Juan. Photo: Press Release/Hungarian National Ballet

Scenographers Eva Szendrenyi and Fruzsina Augustztinyi were inspired by a relic found on display at the Aquincum Museum. The Celtic clasp in the shape of a stylized bird (fibula) also becomes a character in the choreography when the dancers occupy it on the revolving stage. The show also features costumes from Krisztina Berzsenyi and lighting designed by Balazs Csontosthe choreographer was assisted by Agnes Sarkozi-Holler. The cast includes members of the Hungarian National Ballet: Lea Földi, Cristina Balaban, Inés Furuhashi-Huber, Miyu Takamory, Ágnes Kelemen, Artemisz Pisla, Yuka Asai, Gaetano Cottonaro, Balázs Majoros, Carlos Taravillo Mahillo, Noel Ágoston Kovács, Dénes Darab, András Rónai and Francesco Sardelle.

Firebirds. Photo: Press Release/Hungarian National Ballet

The second part of the bill is the first of Don Juan by Thierry Malandain, an extraordinary artist of the French choreographic scene. The legend of Don Juan, a dangerous and daring womanizer whose ride was cut short by a statue that grabs him and descends into hell with his prisoner, has been a favorite subject for artists of different genres for five decades.

An unconventional choreography by Gasparo Angiolini, created in 1761 in Vienna to music by Christoph Willibald Gluck, with a libretto based on Molière’s 1665 play. Thierry Malandain was driven by a similar inspiration: to show new aspects of the well-known subject in his unique style, pushing the boundaries but staying within the realm of aesthetics.

Don Juan. Photo: Press Release/Hungarian National Ballet

Born in 1959, the famous French choreographer began his career as a ballet dancer. His time at the Paris Opera, Mulhouse and Nancy in the 70s and 80s also saw his first attempts at choreographic creation. A restless artist who was not the least bit interested in convention started a new company called Compagnie Temps Present in Paris, which later grew from a company to a corps de ballet lyrique.

In 1997, the city of Biarritz proposed to create a national center for the arts of dance under its direction, called the Center Chorégraphique National – Biarritz Ballet. It became the most important workshop of Malandain, and it is there that Don Juan was established in 2006.

His achievements of three and a half decades have been awarded numerous international prizes, his dance pieces are performed by the greatest ballet ensembles in Europe, Asia and America.

Firebirds. Photo: Press Release/Hungarian National Ballet

The Hungarian National Ballet’s production of Don Juanwhose 2021 rehearsal process is overseen by Malandain himself, features a triple cast of Gergő Ármin Balázsi, Takaaki Okajima, Ryosuke Morimoto, Dumitru Taran, Théo Burg, Mikalai Radziush, Riku Yamamoto and Dmitry Zhukov in the title role, Maksym Kovtun, Yevgen Lagunov and Kristof Morvai as commander, and Theo Bourg, Valerio Palumbo and David Kerenyi Miklos like Death, as well as dancers from the Hungarian National Ballet (rehearsal company: Edit Rujsz and György Szirb).

The last part of the evening consists of two pieces on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Jiří Kylian premiered the ballet Petite Mort for NDT I specifically for the 1991 Salzburg Music Festival, to mark the second centenary of Mozart’s death; it is twinned with Six Dances, created in 1986. Rehearsals are supervised by the company of rehearsals Irina Prokofiev, Aliya Tanykpayeva and Marianna Venekei.