Rose was originally created in 2001 for the Royal Swedish Ballet. The stage from the floor to the flies, the dancers’ bodies and the set, Rose envelopes us in pink. Rose - variation is a piece which deconstructs the classical ballet vocabulary, examining and resetting each figure, each classical step in new variations.

Several well-known movements are re worked from the inside out, fully exploiting their creative and imaginary potential, movements such as a rond de jambe, a grand jeté, a battement, a turn en dehors: these codified figures evoke a corporal fiction which must be entirely reconfigured. Working with the specificity of a corps de ballet, each dancer becomes a soloist who creates their part with the choreographer.

The piece is presented as a series of solos – bravura turns for the dancers - which are then picked up and performed in unison by the group. The beginning of the piece is also its ending since it begins with a series of downstage bows, a specific set of jumps punctuates the piece as if presenting itself before letting itself be seen.

The construction of the work is supported by the music, played live on a pink piano and played by a pianist dressed also in pink, who is in direct contact with the dancers.

The Beethoven piano sonata #17 is set in three movements: Largo-Allegro, Adagio, and Allegretto. It is virtuosic, powerful and luminous, accompanying the dancers’ technical virtuosity while sharing with them the essence of the music. It is a darker piece, written when Beethoven was nearly deaf and fighting valiantly to continue composing.

Rose - variation is an exploration of the poetics of ballet vocabulary, revisited by the exceptional contemporary dancers of the CCN - Ballet de Lorraine.

source : CCN - Ballet de Lorraine

Mathilde Monnier holds a reference position in the French and international contemporary dance landscape. Her creations continuously defy expectations thanks to constant renewal. Her nomination as director of the Centre Chorégraphique de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon in 1994 has initiated a series of collaborations with people coming from different artistic domains. From artist Beverly Semmes to philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy from film director Claire Denis, Mathilde Monnier has always pushed the boundaries of a work she sees as an experience above all. Musical creation holds an important position with very varied collaborations within the fields of popular as well as scholarly music - jazz musician Louis Sclavis, composers David Moss and Heiner Goebbels, virtuoso platinist eriKm. More recently, she has used PJ Harvey's rock music but also the pink pop settings 2008 vallée, the show she co-created with singer Philippe Katerine. It came to a glorious end in the Main Courtyard at the 2008 Avignon festival. Fascinated by the concept of unison, she created the pastoral Tempo 76 show at the Montpellier Danse 07 festival on Gyôrgy Ligeti's music. In february 2008 she was commissionned by the Berlin Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle to choreograph Heiner Goebbels opera, Surrogate Cities. More than 130 amateurs went on stage to take part to an opera dealing with the city and the power struggle within. The same year, she presented the burlesque duet Gustavia in which she appeared along with spanish performance artist La Ribot at the Montpellier Danse 08 festival. In 2009, she created Pavlova 3'23'', in reference to the classical ballet The Death of The Swan. In 2010, working in close collaboration with visual artist Dominique Figarella, Mathilde Monnier created the show Soapéra, and subsequently paid homage to Merce Cunningham by way of the show Un américain à paris. In 2011, together with choreographer Loïc Touzé and writer Tanguy Viel, Mathilde Monnier created Nos images, a work focusing on film. Together with Jean-François Duroure, she restaged Pudique acide / Extasis at the Festival Montpellier Danse 11, two duos that the choreographers created in 1984 and 1985.

Source : Mathilde Monnier 

En savoir plus : www.mathildemonnier.com 

Since acquiring the CCN title in 1999, the Centre Chorégraphique National - Ballet de Lorraine has dedicated itself to supporting contemporary choreographic creation. As of July 2011 the organization is under the general and artistic direction of Petter Jacobsson.
The CCN – Ballet de Lorraine and its company of 26 dancers is one of the most important companies working in Europe, performing contemporary creations while retaining and programming a rich and extensive repertory, spanning our modern history, made up of works by some of our generations most highly regarded choreographers.
The CCN functions as an art center and venue for multiple possibilities in the fields of research, experimentation and artistic creation. It is a platform open to many different disciplines, a space where the many visions of dance of today may meet. 

More information : http://ballet-de-lorraine.eu