Nederlands Dans Theater Jiří Kyliáns piece ‘Bella Figura’ for the NDT 1 programme ‘Sometimes, I wonder’.
Bella Figura (1995) is considered a Kylián masterpiece. It was one of the first times he deconstructed the stage where theatrical elements acted as a metaphor.
A journey in time _ light and space, addressing the ambiguity of aesthetics _ performances and dreams. Finding beauty in a grimace _ in a knot of the mind _ or in a physical contortion. It is like trying to perform a balancing act on the string of your umbilical cord.
Jiry Kylian
When does the performing act start? _ When we are born or when the curtain rises? _ Does it all end when we walk off the stage _ or is there no end to the performance?What is a masquerade? _ The clothes we wear in the street or the stage costume?Between so-called art and artificiality _ between the reality of life or fantasy _ this twilight zone creates a tension which is of interest to me.
It is like standing on the edge of a dream. Standing in darkness and staring into a sharp light with closed eyes _ doubting every bit of our so-called reality.The moment in which dream intrudes into our lives and life into our dreams _ this is the point of my curiosity.Simply _ a feeling of falling down in a dream and waking up with a broken rib.
In Bella Figura (1995), Kylián embarks on a fascinating journey through time and thought, during which he once again explores the fundamental question of human existence and seeks to overcome the entrenched boundaries between illusion and reality. To the strains of both old and new music – Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Lucas Foss – the piece performs a breath-taking “balancing act on an umbilical cord.”
Choreography Jiří Kylián
Music Lukas Foss, Alessandro Marcello, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Giuseppe Torelli, Antonio Vivaldi
Stage design Jiří Kylián
Costumes Joke Visser
Lighting designer Kees Tjebbes