William Forsythe

Forsythe is a legendary choreographer, revered worldwide as one of the most creative innovators of the ballet tradition. Since the 1970s, he has revolutionised dance by intelligently developing academic ballet in a way that frees the human body from its predetermined corset and broadens choreographic expression in unprecedented ways. Many of William Forsythe’s virtuoso compositions have long become modern classics. In this homage, the Staatsballett will perform three groundbreaking pieces by the American choreographer.

In Blake Works I, Forsythe explores the vocabulary of ballet only to catapult it to a whole new level. He combines it with complex recognisable movement patterns that then develop in completely other directions, using James Blake’s electronic pop music and evocative vocals as a foundation.

Approximate Sonata alludes to the importance of this musical form. Similarly, in this minimalistic choreography, a series of pas de deux with four pairs, Forsythe takes the canon of rules in classical ballet and uses them to subvert the validity of elements of the pas de deux itself, doing so in a thoroughly ironic way. The Staatsballett Berlin will perform Approximate Sonata in the 2016 version created by Forsythe for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris.

One Flat Thing, Reproduced – which premiered in 2000 with the Ballet Frankfurt – concludes this three-part ballet evening and expands the breadth of Forsythe’s ballet explorations by a new dimension. With music by Thom Willems, One Flat Thing, Reproduced is a breathtaking choreography that pulsates and loses itself. It is rightly regarded as one of William Forsythe’s main works, in which the performers’ virtuosity rivals the ingenious complexity of the choreography.
William Forsythe himself will rehearse these three works with the dancers of the Staatsballett in Berlin.