Rites (Bolero X / La Valse / Le Sacre du printemps)
Shahar Binyamini / Nacera Belaza / Pina Bausch
17/01 - 05/02/2026 | Stadsschouwburg Antwerpen & Capitole Gent
DATES AND TICKETS
Three orchestral masterpieces become rituals of movement: Ravel's hypnotic Boléro , his swirling La Valse and Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps .
Exactly 100 years ago, Maurice Ravel's La Valse had its scenic world premiere at the then Ballet of the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp. This milestone could not go unnoticed. That is why we asked the Algerian-French choreographer Nacera Belaza to create a solo based on it. Belaza's work is known for its ritualistic character, with an intense interplay between light and darkness. In Rites , La Valse is flanked by two musical and choreographic icons. Choreographer Shahar Binyamini opens the triptych with his Bolero X. Binyamini doubles the OBV company with additional dancers. In this way, he brings his overwhelming yet poetic interpretation of Ravel's enchanting score to life. We conclude with Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps , one of the most iconic rituals ever staged. Pina Bausch created a milestone in dance history with her legendary version of the famous Spring Sacrifice. Barbara Kaufmann, a former dancer at the Tanztheater Wuppertal, leads rehearsals with the OBV dancers.
Shahar Binyamini's hypnotiserende Bolero X - Video
La valse comme rituel - Video
Pina Bauschs iconische Le Sacre du printemps - Video
Past Events
Crowd #2 rewritten with OBV
Gisèle Vienne
An ode to counterculture
OPERA GHENT | Wed, June 4 8 pm OPERA ANTWERP| Sat, June 21 8 pm
Crowd Gisèle Vienne Photo Koen Broos
Crowd, which was originally created in 2017, is without a doubt a key work of the celebrated French-Austrian choreographer Gisèle Vienne. It is now being presented for the first time by a company other than her own as Crowd #2 rewritten with OBV. A group of dancers, each with their own character and history, like a gallery of portraits of a generation, meet on a stage that has been transformed into a dusty wasteland littered with the remains of a party in full swing. Crowd tells a story of underground techno in 1990s Berlin, to the soundtrack that embraces the history of electronic music, with pride of place given to Detroit techno and the collective Underground Resistance. Crowd reminds us of stories of counterculture, these creative, intellectual and political spaces, immense and crucial, where people try to invent other ways of being, as a tribute to today’s vital counterculture. Emotional and social movements are worked on as choreography, just like the formal choreographic work, a meticulous composition that unfolds in space the different temporalities, through different physical states, that make up the present time. Crowd is a sensory experience unfolding the density of the experience of the present time, where past, present, the construction of memory and anticipated future come together. The performers’ movements; slow motion, jerks, stops, and loops create powerful images and constantly recompose the arrangement of bodies, timeframes, and fictions questioning the influence of emotions on perception. The performances of Crowd #2 rewritten with OBV are the culmination of a months-long process in which the complex inner worlds of the characters are developed by Gisèle Vienne, her collaborators Sophie Demeyer, Theo Livesey, Vincent Dupuy and Katia Petrowick, Martha Rodezno and the dancers of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Crowd Gisèle Vienne Photo Koen Broos Original production by DACM / Company Gisèle Vienne (2017).
ROMEO + JULIA
WORLD PREMIERE
CHOREOGRAPHY | MARCOS MORAU
Sergei Prokofjev MUSICAL DIRECTOR | GAVIN SUTHERLAND
OPERA GHENT | 15 MARCH 8 pm OPERA ANTWERP| 3 APRIL 8 pm
Romeo+Julia-Marcos-Morau-(c)Tim-Coppens
Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau is one of the most renowned and sought-after choreographers. In 2023, he was named Choreographer of the Year by the international dance press. Together with his company La Veronal, he is a regular guest at prestigious theatres and renowned festivals from Avignon to the Venice Biennale. He has also worked with the dancers of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Zurich Ballet and the Nederlands Dans Theater, among others. He is now making his debut at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and will be working with our dancers. For Morau, choreography is more than just movement. It’s an essential part of a visual and conceptual composition in which the boundaries between dance, theatre, film and visual arts blur. He immerses his stories in dark, surreal dream worlds that evoke associations with filmmakers such as David Lynch and Luis Buñuel. His dance language is characterised by complex structures and unpredictable rhythms. Combined with a strong sense of aesthetics, all this makes him one of the most influential choreographers of today. ‘When you talk about Romeo and Juliet, everyone imagines a love story. In our version of the piece, you will see much less love and much more of the violence that is evoked by Shakespeare and Prokofiev.' Marcos Morau For this brand-new production, Romeo + Juliet, Morau has drawn inspiration from Shakespeare’s classic story and the music of Sergei Prokofiev. But don’t expect a traditional narrative. Morau creates a dark world as if you have ended up in a nightmare. He abandons the traditional storyline and transforms it into an associative vision. ‘When you talk about Romeo and Juliet, everyone imagines a love story. In our version of the piece, you will see much less love and much more of the violence that is evoked by Shakespeare and Prokofiev. The characters of Romeo and Juliet are only present as metaphors for love, in the form of two children. In this case, love is represented by the innocence of these two children,’ the choreographer explains about his vision. ‘Romeo and Juliet love each other so much, but it is precisely the impossibility of being together that drives them to madness. Their love is constantly sabotaged by life, society, their families. It drives them mad with desire. At the same time, their desire to be together is so pure and intense, precisely because they are so young. That inconsistency makes them epic characters.’
Design-presentation-SET---ROMEO&JULIA
It is Morau’s first time working with a classical ballet score performed by a live orchestra. He chose to work with a short version of Prokofiev’s composition that contains all the musical highlights, including the forceful ‘Dance of the Knights’. Internationally renowned conductor and ballet specialist Gavin Sutherland, who previously conducted Creature by Akram Khan in our house, will guide the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen Symphony Orchestra through this monumental score. Together with the sumptuous costumes by Silvia Delagneau, an impressive scenographic concept by Max Glaenzel and the refined lighting design by Bernat Jansà, this Romeo + Juliet promises to be not only a highlight of the dance season, but also an immersive, sensory experience that sheds a fresh light on an iconic story.
Rain
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
Irresistible dance energy
11/09 26/01/25
After the infectious Mozart / Concert Arias, the dancers of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen once again breathe new life into an iconic ensemble performance by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. With Rain (2001), the celebrated choreographer returned to two great loves: pure dance and the minimalist music of the American composer Steve Reich. To the mesmerising, pulsating tones of Reich’s cult composition Music for 18 Musicians (1976), ten dancers occupy the stage, demarcated by a curtain of fine cords. They perform a dizzying sequence of virtuoso dance phrases. De Keersmaeker’s penchant for mathematical figures, the geometric use of space and her art of constant variation are brought to an absolute apotheosis in this overpowering choreography. The company of dancers appears as a close-knit group of outspoken individuals who, one by one, play an indispensable role in the whole. Rain is irresistible dance energy set to a masterpiece of minimal music.
FIELD / Minus 16
Kirsten Wicklund / Ohad Naharin
Ballet world creation
30/11 19/12/24
With FIELD / Minus 16, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen presents a diptych that stimulates reflection and lets everyone go home dancing.
Until recently, Kirsten Wicklund was a member of our ballet company and in parallel she was working hard as a choreographer. Now she returns with FIELD, her first major creation for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. Musicians from OBV's Symphonic Orchestra will perform the Eighth String Quartet by Dmitri Shostakovich and the ‘Melodia’ from the Sonata for Solo Violin by Béla Bartók live. To this incantatory music, Wicklund and her team open a portal to a mysterious mirror universe. A soundscape by Jean Delouvroy and Ivania Carpio's abstract, geometric set catapult the spectator into a space that seems to exist outside time. Dimensions like movement and light also merge in Irina Shaposhnikova's almost fluid costumes.
After the interval follows Minus 16: perhaps the greatest hit by living legend Ohad Naharin. Since its premiere in 1999, Minus 16 has become a canonical work of contemporary dance. It has already appeared on stages all over the world, and now finally with us. Minus 16 is an unpredictable kaleidoscope that sometimes moves and sometimes makes you laugh. To this end, the dancers of Opera Ballet Flanders immerse themselves in Naharin's idiosyncratic movement language gaga, balancing between expressive power and vulnerability. Musically too, Minus 16 transcends expectations: with infectious Latin music, pumping techno beats or the intimacy of Chopin, the performance crosses genre after genre.