WINGS OF MEMORY

The three-part evening Wings of Memory with works by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jiří Kylián and Pina Bausch is the focus point of the 2025 Ballet Festival Week with a one-off series of performances over six days. Bausch's epoch-making interpretation of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps takes centre stage. First performed at the Wuppertal Opera House in 1975, the 35-minute work is now one of the signature pieces of the dance theatre legend, who died in 2009. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's version of Claude Debussy's instrumental work Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Bella Figura by Jiří Kylián can also be seen as part of this three-part programme.

The three-part ballet evening entitled Wings of Memory begins with Bella Figura by Jiří Kylián. The work, set to music from various baroque compositions, captivates with the beauty of its choreographic forms and figures. The second work of the evening comes from the director of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, who brings his 2009 realisation of Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune to the stage with the ensemble of the Bayerisches Staatsballett. For the finale of the evening, a name returns to the programme of the Bayerisches Staatsballett that has written dance history not only in Germany: Pina Bausch. As part of a one-off series of performances, the Munich ensemble will present Pina Bausch's interpretation of Le Sacre du Printemps, which has become legendary. The cruelty associated with human sacrifice is portrayed in her choreography with great sensitivity and vitality, without obscuring the underlying existential nature of the subject.