Soapéra This year at ImPulsTanz the great French choreographer Mathilde Monnier presents an encounter between dance and painting, and an encounter with a ballet piece that marked the transition from classical to modern ballet. Michel Fokine’s short solo “The Dying Swan”, first performed in 1907 in Anna Pavlova’s interpretation, is definitely one of the most famous ballet pieces of all time. Back then, it was a major provocation. Because for the first time, a ballerina was allowed to improvise live on stage, and the whole dance lasted only a little over three minutes. Accordingly, “Pavlova 3’23”” is the title of Monnier’s reflection on this classic, in which nine dancers interpret the dying swan in their very special, contemporary manner. “Soapéra” is a collaboration with four dancers and painter Dominique Figarella. Together they have developed a piece that works like a wondrous construction kit consisting of gestures, traces, texts and the question of what happens when the dance loses the dancers and the art of painting joins in. The gesture of painting is changed, adapted – thus opening up new perspectives for dance. The stage becomes a canvas (and vice versa) and the materials of the two genres of art themselves become the focus of attention, be it colours, gestures or texts. Cie. Mathilde Monnier / CCN de Montpellier - "pavlova 3'23"" Duration: 60 minutes

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