During 2020/2021 season The Czech National Ballet manages to stimualate creative energy and seeking new artistic impulses. The world online premiere of works by choreographers Douglas Lee and Alejandro Cerrudo ranks among them. We value every moment when we can freely create and thus contribute to the formation of a sensitive and supportive environment…
Douglas Lee and Alejandro Cerrudo worked with The Czech National Ballet since August 2020. The dancers learned to exercise in face masks, disinfect their hands, split into small closed groups, take tests, protect themselves and others, watch their health and act as an evidence that the covid era shall not destroy the arts, the live theatre. In November 2020 these artists completed their new choreographies and the works were recorded. All choreographies are part of the Phoenix production which has entered the repertory of The Czech National Ballet (the third part of the premiere is Prelude und Liebestod by Cayetano Soto). We are ready to perform all three creations whenever audiences can return to our historical building. The live premiere is still to come and we hope to reconnect soon.
On March 18, 2021 at 7pm we will be showing PUPPET (choreography by Douglas Lee) and on March 25, 2021 at 7pm DOS SOLES SOLOS (choreography by Alejandro Cerrudo); both works on YouTube channel of the Czech National Ballet.
Douglas Lee: ‘My ballet is called Puppet. I love the use of plasticity in a dancer’s body and achieving beauty, nevertheless the idea of puppetry suggests an outside force moving the dancer’s limbs or an unusual non-human way of articulating the joints. Al this I am exploring in the studio. Mythical creatures such as a puppet bring a sense of fantasy out in a person’s creative mind. It is the same sense of fantasy that draws people to the theatre or ballet.‘
Alejandro Cerrudo: ‘Once I enter the studio I don’t think about sun, death or rebirth. I just listen to the music and watch the dancers – and we make something new, in the present moment. As Chris McCandless says: The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.‘
DOUGLAS LEE
British choreographer, dancer, principal dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet for many years, winner of the prestigious Russian Golden Mask Award for the best choreographer of the year 2016. He has been creating his own works since 1999 and cooperating with numerous ballet companies in Europe and North America. Douglas Lee‘s movement vocabulary is known for its distinct aesthetics emphasizing dancers‘ physical abilities and pushing them to the limits.
ALEJANDRO CERRUDO
Spanish dancer and choreographer, resident artist with the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (2009–2018) and the Pacific Northwest Ballet (since 2020). During his career he has created works for a number of companies and artists, including Wendy Whelan and Daniil Simkin. It is above all the choreographer‘s musicality and careful dealing with music that is appreciated, as well as the sense for detail in movement patterns and emotions.
PUPPET
Choreography: Douglas Lee
Set design, costume design, lighting design: Douglas Lee
Technical adaptation of lighting design: Daniel Tesař
Ballet Master: Jiří Kodym
Music: Nicolas Sávva (Awakener, The Tower), David Skidmore (Take Anything You Want, Triptan, Torched & Wrecked)
Music record: HAMU Percussion Ensemble (Awakener, The Tower), Third Coast Percussion (Take Anything You Want, Triptan, Torched & Wrecked)
DOS SOLES SOLOS
Choreography: Alejandro Cerrudo
Set design: Michael Korsch
Costumes: Karen Young
Lighting design: Daniel Tesař
Ballet Master: Alexandre Katsapov
Music: Caroline Shaw (Entr’acte, Plan & Elevation)
Music record: Attacca Quartet
