The House

Our season is winding to an end. In our studios the mirrors reflect increasingly tanned dancers. Almost every evening, we dive into the half-light of the theatre to perform our second to last program Hope. This is probably our most emotional production so far.

From summer 2019 Aviel Cahn will be the new general director of Le Grand Théâtre de Genève, which operates the biggest opera house in Switzerland. He will then say goodbye to Opera Vlaanderen where he will have been at the helm for slightly more than ten years. The news was announced in Geneva this afternoon.

For the first time since the merger of Opera and Ballet Vlaanderen, dancers and singers stood on stage together in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s ‘Requiem’. As these two departments of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen united, blogwriters Simon and Emmi joined to share their observations.

Sometimes many things seem to be happening all at once. As events follow each other in a tumble, eventually there is no choice but to give in and go along with the momentum of the situation. The same principle applies when translated into dance.

The coming together and undoing of Spartacus had me so swamped up in emotions, that words completely left me for a little while. Existing in the twilight of theatre hours, circling corridors between the dressing room, makeup department and backstage, all actions and thoughts were aimed at those stage-light flooded moments.