Chopin inspires. It is hard to count artists, composers, choreographers, classical or jazz musicians, who derived inspiration from works of our greatest creator. Fans of ballet instantly associate his name with choreographic impression Chopiniana by Fokin with, moderately speaking, a bit controversial instrumentation of Chopin works by Glazunov. We want to break this simple association with our choreographic evening that Chopin plus ballet means Chopiniana. We search for new ways of embodiment of famous mazurkas, waltzes and preludes into dance. Two parts of this evening are two different looks on the modern ballet since they are prepared by two different artists of different nationalities, representing two different cultures – European ans Asian. These choreographers, however, are united by common awe for Polish composer to whom we address this tribute on bicentennial birth anniversary.
The artistic project, graphic-ballet, inspired by Chopin. It is commonly acknowledged that best interpreters of Chopin are Poles and Asians. Is this would so in the dance sphere? We invited for this production two choreographers coming from two different cultures, creating in different dance techniques – Pole and Chinese. Emil Wesołowski and Ho Sin Hang are both experienced choreographers with enormous artistic attainments and mature look on art. That should guarantee high quality of this two-part performance. We hope that what emerges would be two different choreographies having one common denominator – Chopin. Both would use modern dance techniques which allow us to continue repertoire line of Baltic Opera that plans to present modern dance techniques that made possible to attract younger audience. Performers would be ballet artists of Baltic Opera who constantly learn new motion techniques. However, that is not all. We want to inspire with Chopin not only choreographers. On the Gdańsk Academy of Fine arts a contest has been announced for poster to this production. Winner piece would be chosen to represent the production on streets of Gdańsk and best submissions would be displayed on exhibition accompanying the premiere in Baltic Opera. In this way Chopin’s music will influence creativity of choreographers, dancers and graphic artists; of experienced artists and those who just start their careers. It is also a attempt to convince ballet lovers that Chopin and ballet does not necessarily mean Chopiniana - the classical choreography of Mikhail Fokin with most unfortunate instrumentation by Glazunov. It is supposed to be a dance vision of Chopin for XXIst century sensitivity.
The performance would stay in the Baltic Opera repertoire for at lest three seasons. It would be recorded and video-clips would be made that would be presented in television and internet. Shall our means allow, it will be presented also on other stages.