William Forsythe's Impressing the Czar (Royal Ballet of Flanders)

Royal Ballet of Flanders perform William Forsythe's seminal work Impressing the Czar.

The company performed this production at Sadler's Wells as part of the Autumn 2008 Season.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• impressing
• the
• czar
• william
• forsythe
• royal
• ballet
• of
• flanders
• in
• middle
• somewhat
• elevated

[shemalegazebo]

i saw this one in frankfurt. great job!! :)

[batoud]

the first duet is horribly executed !

[noelephantitis]

@rumpwrestler I have a bootleg VHS of the premiere in Frankfurt, and you're right, it's completely, totally mad. My understanding is that it was thrown together very quickly, and it sure seems very raw.

[toeknee1965]

@noelephantitis u guys crack me up with your thinking . love listening

[toeknee1965]

@rabelais95 cool i saw it too then. ooops i mean i was in it. we did not think it was revolutionary. we were just haveing a mad old time

[rabelais95]

I saw it in 1989 in Grenoble... it was an absolute shock ! A revolution at this time...

[noelephantitis]

@thierryeric I agree that it's all pretty abstract, but I've actually argued with Billy himself that his work is more specific and political than he's willing to admit. I have a documentary where says that working at the Paris Opera was about "reckoning with history" for him, and the fact that the Czar is the director of it ... might he also be the Man in the Box from the auction? And those schoolgirls end up being very scary at the end--but ultimately you're right, it's up to each person ...

[noelephantitis]

@thierryeric I knew about "In the Middle" being created before the full ballet, but I didn't know the "Czar" was the director of the Paris Opera! So you're saying that the ceiling of the rehearsal room had some kind of decorative element that included cherries and all the other objects that appear in "Impressing"? There's some kind of fetishism going on here, having to do with "potency"--the cherries look so much like certain parts of male anatomy, but they are only "somewhat" elevated ...