Fancy a Visit to Paris Opera Ballet?
Signes (Carolyn Carlson), Paris Opera Ballet. Yann Chailloux, Adrien Couvez. (c) Benoîte Fanton.
What?
On 14 July 2023, you have a chance to do so virtually: Paris Opera Play, the Paris Opera’s streaming platform, will be streaming Carolyn Carlson’s cult work Signes live from the Bastille Opera. You don’t need to subscribe to the channel: for the price of a cinema ticket, you can access the livestream from your couch and/or watch the performance in replay for seven days after the live.
Why?
Who doesn’t enjoy a chance to travel to Paris, even if only virtually? But putting our appreciation for Paris aside, TWoA loves to look at the link between painting, music and dance. Signes is exactly about this link. The ballet was created in 1997 for Paris Opera Ballet and revived in 2023. French painter Olivier Debré wanted to create a series of huge abstract paintings, taking the theme of the smile as his starting point, and to use them as basis for a ballet. Choreographer Carolyn Carlson took Debré’s seven painted scenes to explore the smile, and other emotional states, together with French composer René Aubry. The result: a visually stunning production where the power of dance, art and music perfectly feed into each. Signes is a true collaboration between the three art forms as absolute equals.
Signes (Carolyn Carlson), Paris Opera Ballet. Awa Joannais, Sofia Rosolini, Victoire Anquetil. (c) Benoîte Fanton.
What the Artists Say
In a video produced by the Paris Opera, Carolyn Carlson recounts her work on the ballet with sparkling eyes. She found Debré’s idea to work on the smile fascinating: “For Olivier, this was the first symbol of a child, the smile. He was right, because I remember when my son was born, when he first smiled at me – it broke my heart. It’s wonderful to work with Olivier. Our work is similar in a way because he doesn’t work with story. He is a painter; he works with poetic images.”
Hannah O’Neill, danseuse étoile (principal dancer) of the Paris Opera Ballet, is dancing the female lead in the 2023 revival. In another clip produced by the opera, she describes the ballet Signes like this: “Radiant, colourful, rhythmical, happy.”
Signes (Carolyn Carlson), Paris Opera Ballet. Gautier de Charnacé, Lévy, de Bellefon, Belem. (c) Benoîte Fanton.
What You Need to Know
Choreographer Carolyn Carlson was born in California in 1943 and arrived in France in 1971. Her 1972 poetic manifesto Rituel pour un rêve mort (“Ritual for a dead dream”) defines her work until today. Her approach to dance is very philosophical and spiritual: she describes her work as “visual poetry” rather than as choreography.
Carlson played an important role in the evolution of French and Italian contemporary dance: in the mid-1970s she led the Paris Opera Theatrical Research Group at the Paris Opéra (CRTOP). Between 1980 and 1985, she was artistic director of Teatrodanza La Fenice in Venice. Since 2014, she is the director of the Paris based Carolyn Carlson Company.
Curious Fact
The ballet will be live streamed from the Bastille Opera on a very special day: 14 July is Bastille Day, France’s main national holiday. On 14 July 1789, the people of Paris grabbed weapons from the armoury at the Invalides, marched on the Bastille, a Royal fortress, broke into it, and released the handful of prisoners held there. As the first victory of “the people” against France’s Old Regime, the storming of the Bastille became a symbol of the French revolution. The Bastille Opera was opened on 13 July 1989, on the eve of the 200thanniversary of the storming of the Bastille.