Once Upon An Ever After/Choreartium

Once Upon An Ever After – an evocative title derivative of fairytale syntax since time immemorial. Terence Kohler's choreography, set to Tschaikowky's – who else!? –Pathétique, is a journey through dance history which redistributes and –interprets staple figures of classical Russian narrative ballet.

Giselle and Albrecht are driven away by Rotbart, who is later barred from entering Auroras castle by briars… This to and fro, this flitting through narrative structures and plot lines is mirrored constantly and ever after in the artist rosalie's superb light-object stage design for Kohler's creation.

Translated from Greek, Choreartium means 'dance of the arts' or 'tribute to the arts through dance'. For the stage, Massine translated his interpretation of Brahms' 4th Symphony into choreography. He himself said once: "I created the choreography for Choreartium according to the instrumentation of the score. I asked women to accentuate the more delicate passages while men dance the heavier, robust passages. The music, rich in its orchestration and contrast is perfect for the interplay between masculine and feminine movements and steps." Massine’s choreography counts as one of the widely underappreciated, highly musical neo classical masterworks which we were able to recover as part of DANCE COUNTRY GERMANY.

Part of the huge success of the German premiere of Choreartium in Munich 2012 were the stage designs contributed by the renowned Dutch artist Keso Dekker. In 2014, Dekker received the Taglioni European Ballet Award in the category Best Designer for said designs.