14 > 16 June, 8 p.m.

15 June, 10 p.m.

Teatro alle Tese – Arsenale

Ballet National de Marseille (France)

Métamorphoses  [Italian premiere]

artistic project Frédéric Flamand

choreography Frédéric Flamand and the dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille

design and costumes Humberto & Fernando Campana

cast Delphine Boutet, Marion Cavaillé, Katharina Christl, Nonoka Kato, Yoshiko Kinoshita, Aurélie Luque, Valentina Pace, Marion Zurbach, Slawek Bendrat, Simon Courchel, Marcos Marco, Nathanaël Marie, Yasuyuki Endo, Vito Giotta, Anton Zvir  - set design Ralf Nonn - costume production Aurélia Lyon, Nicole Murru - music George van Dam, Sergei Prokofiev, Walter Hus, Maurice Ravel, Biosphere, Ambre & M. Spybey, George Antheil, Igor Stravinsky, Philip Jeck & Jacob Kirkegaard, Camille Saint-Saëns, Arcangelo Corelli, Autopoieses - images Fabiano Spano - production Ballet National de Marseille - in co-production with Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg, as part of Luxembourg & Grande Région – European Culture Capital 2007, Brighton Festival (Great Britain) - with the support of Culturesfrance, Cultural Delegation of the French Embassy, Alliance Française of Venice

An artist who has developed his choreographic work through collaboration with visual artists and architects (Fabrizio Plessi, Zaha Hadid, Diller + Scofidio, Jean Nouvel), exploring new points of convergence between technique and emotion, Frédéric Flamand – who was director of the Dance Venice Biennale in 2003 – now tackles the world of design. The Brazilian Fernando and Humberto Campana brothers – creators of the famous “vermelha” chair, composed of 500 metres of red rope wound into a bird’s nest – have for the first time designed sets and costumes for the new Flamand show. Famed worldwide for their unusual conception of design, formed of hybrid forms and everyday and recycled materials, the Campana brothers appeared to Flamand as the most appropriate to explore the issue of metamorphosis inspired by the monumental work of Ovid.

In Métamorphoses, Flamand captures the desire to explode classical order: with a perpetual mix (human, divine, mineral, animal, vegetable), he offsets the idea of purity, with the perennially changing forms in conflict with the idea of stability, with the wealth of an imaginary fantasy that once established opposes absolute irrationality.