Préludes CV

In the organizer's words:

A choreographic sketchbook in two parts

Do not try to understand the ballet. It has no story (that I could tell you) - except the plot that you may feel in yourself while listening to the music and watching these movement situations at the same time. I'm sure many very different stories form there....
I was moved by Lera Auerbach's music and, without thinking much, I chose dancers whom I "heard" in this music. From their own personalities, the characters of the ballet emerged. For me, they have now taken on a life of their own. But, like people in real life, they remain ultimately enigmatic, mysterious. I.e. I see what they do (made it up myself!), but I don't always understand their motives. Don't know what they really think, don't understand why they do (or don't do) something. Sometimes I think I recognize the people - sometimes they look completely different. I know them - but I don't know them either. Their relationships seem unclear and change often. They are not predictable - just like real people.

April 3, 2003
Notes in the first days of the creation of "Préludes CV

Sometimes I see the ballet like a sketchbook.... my very personal movement sketchbook of feelings. Dance images, single unfinished fragments of human situations (seemingly) unrelated next to each other - spatially limited by the stage space, temporally by the duration of the music (like sketches by the dimensions of the paper). They seem unrelated, but as in the sketchpad, the artist's instinct has sketched them right there on the page, unconsciously giving different motifs their mysterious logic. Also, typical of a sketchbook, in my ballet there are several variations of the same action, dance, or situation.... as if the observer (the sketcher, the choreographer) tries to capture aspects of the "same" in a different way, too...

June 9, 2003
Notes in the last days of the creations of "Préludes CV".
John Neumeier


Music: Lera Auerbach - 24 Préludes for violoncello and piano and 24 Préludes for violin and piano
Choreography, stage design and costumes: John Neumeier

2 hours 35 minutes | 1 intermission
1st part: 60 minutes, 2nd part: 70 minutes

WORLD PREMIERE:
Hamburg Ballet, Hamburg, June 22, 2003

ORIGINAL CAST:
Silvia Azzoni
Joëlle Boulogne
Laura Cazzaniga
Heather Jurgensen
Elizabeth Loscavio
Susanne Menck
Niurka Moredo
Anna Polikarpova
Lisa Todd

Otto Bubenícek
Peter Dingle
Yukichi Hattori
Carsten Jung
Alexandre Riabko
Lloyd Riggins
Yohan Stegli
Sébastien Thill