The new creation by the Spaniard Juanjo Arqués had to be postponed twice due to coronavirus restrictions. The first wave of corona put paid to the plans, as did the Omicron variant last year. This meant that Arqués’ sources of inspiration and ideas for his new work changed as well. Now the premiere is imminent at last, he has chosen a theme that many of us have had to deal with both during and since the coronavirus pandemic: the impact of stress on our daily lives.
Yes, he’s also stress-sensitive himself, admits the 46-year-old Juanjo Arqués. “As an artist, you automatically have to contend with tension and nerves. Especially as I’m someone who always takes risks. If I’m asked to choreograph a work within a few weeks, I’m quick to say yes, but then you’re usually stressed for weeks afterward. On top of that, I have a mild form of ‘urban phobia’, so I don’t feel very comfortable in big crowds of people or on those ultra-long metro escalators.”
However, he says, his new piece Full Frontal is absolutely not an autobiographical work. “What concerns me is the role stress plays in our society and the effects it has on us.” Recently, he has been delving into the subject in detail – both into stress caused by external factors, such as noise, crowds, bad news, and disasters, and into mental, inner stress. “Of course, stress also has its positive sides. For instance, it can boost your immune system and help you defend yourself and others against threats or danger. But how do we deal with chronic stress? If you want to be a well-balanced person, then you need to keep such stress under control.”
Text: Astrid van Leeuwen
Credits
Choreography Juanjo Arqués Music Michael Gordon Lighting Design Yaron Abulafia. Set & Costume Design Tatyana van Walsum Dramaturgy Fabienne Vegt Assistant Choreographer Jose Carlos Blanco Martinez Special Sound Effects Ian Dearden Dutch Ballet Orchestra conducted by Matthew Rowe Dancers Nationale Opera & Ballet
Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli is also known as the Paukenmesse (kettledrum mass) because of the dramatic use of timpani, a theatrical touch that is unusual for a mass.
In an unusual twist Dutch National Opera is presenting the mass in a fully staged version. Director Barbora Horáková reveals the flipside of the steadfast faith that runs through every note of Haydn’s mass, poignantly portraying individuals who suffer under the heavy burden of a narrowminded, one-sided ideology.
Swiss-Israeli electronic composer Janiv Oron responds to Haydn’s music with beats and sound effects, all created live. These extra sound worlds offer a counterbalance to the religious conviction articulated by the Missa.
MAJOR ROLE FOR THE CHORUS, SOLOISTS AND DANCERS
The Missa has a starring role for the wonderful Chorus of Dutch National Opera. Up-and-coming tenor Mingjie Lei makes his DNO debut. This production also marks the return to the stage of mezzo-soprano Polly Leech, an alumna of our own Dutch National Opera Studio.
The Spanish choreographer Juanjo Arqués, who is closely connected with Dutch National Ballet, is creating a choreography for nine dancers, thus giving physical expression to the contrasts that are central to the direction.
CREDITS
Musical direction Lorenzo Viotti
Stage direction, Set design and Lighting design Barbora Horáková
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Soprano Janai Brugger
Mezzo-soprano Polly Leech
Tenor Mingjie Lei
Baritone Johannes Kammler
Dancers Dutch National Ballet
Costa Allen, Erica Horwood, Dustin True, Clara Superfine, Yvonne Slingerland, Leo Hepler, Sebia Plantefève, Philippe Magdelijns, Isaac Mueller, Gregory Myles, Lauren Hunter, Claire Tjoe-Fat, Emma Mardegan en Guillermo Torrijos.
Chorus Chorus of Dutch National Opera
Chorus master Lionel Sow
Orchestra Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
Live electronica Janiv Oron
Costumes Jorine van Beek
Video Simon Hänggi | Hervé Thiot
Dramaturgy Niels Nuijten
Associate set designer Sieger Kotterer
Associate lighting designer Peter van der Sluis
La Traviata –directly translated as »the one who has lost her way«–is the Parisian courtesan Violetta Valéry. Already dying from an incurable lung disease, she falls in love with Alfredo Germont. Yet her feelings conflict with her way of life and all sense of reason; ultimately, her quest for freedom and happiness is defeated by the moral strictures of bourgeois society. When first performed in Venice in 1853, this story was considered scandalous: an opera about a courtesan who dies of tuberculosis and is also modeled on a real-life woman in Parisian society was an outrageous innovation for the time. Focusing on the complex relationship between Violetta, her lover Alfredo and his father Giorgio, Giuseppe Verdi created a captivating and fully-rounded character, expressed through music that shifts between lyrical bel canto passages and powerful music-dramatic outbursts. Juanjo Arqués makes this opera's choreography under Barbora Horáková Joly's artistic direction in the dazzling world of 19th-century vaudeville.
Credits
Conductor Stefano Ranzani Stage direction Barbora Horáková Choreography Juanjo Arqués Set Design Eva-Maria van Acker Costume Design Annemarie Bulla Light Design Fabio Antoci Video Sarah Derendinger Dramaturgy Juliane Schunke Choir André Kellinghaus
Iris van Herpen and Dutch National Ballet explore the symbiotic relationship between the metamorphic force in which fashion and dance interlace. The film, directed by Ryan McDaniels, sees the mesmeric dancer undulating into liquescent shapes and transcending into graceful figures that reflect her myriad of movements.
The brand’s pioneering vision of coalescing fashion and dance comes to life through JingJing Mao who is guided by Movement Director Juanjo Arqués. He made intuitive use of the surrounding eclectic elements to explore the direction Iris van Herpen’s designs take him.
CREDITS
Iris van Herpen & Dutch National Ballet
Film Director Ryan McDaniels
Movement Director Juanjo Arqués
Dancer Jingjing Mao
Music Thijs de Vlieger | Lavinia Meijer
Sound Consultancy Salvador Breed
Hair Daan Kneppers
Make-Up Suzanne Verberk
Photography Valentine Bouqet
Manoeuvre is danced by seven male dancers, shifting the ballet's attention to male sensitivity. The creation process starts from the emotion and from there searches for form and movement. A path winding between different moods leads to a more complete self-image.
Arqués uses John Adams' exceptional composition 'Shaker Loops' (Erasmus Prize 2019), in which the composer managed to convert wave motion into sound. The wave movement in 'Shaker Loops' is reflected in the s-shaped set design by Tatyana van Walsum, for the new ballet for the Dutch National Ballet.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music John Adams
Dramaturge Fabienne Vegt
Set & Costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lights Bert Dalhuysen
Assistant Judy Maelor Thomas
Company Dutch Nationale Opera & Ballet
World première October 2020.
‘In Manoeuvre, the choreography for this boys’ club, there are not only angular shapes, clenched fists, rugby postures, and brawls to be seen, but gestures also emerge that express fear, desire, and care with softer energy. A winding rail with a transparent curtain divides the stage into two spaces, each of which separates an individual from the group. That canvas lies on the floor at the end, as if the taboo on emotions has been removed.’
— Francine van der Wiel for NRC
In search of an epithet for the 21st century, the British author George Monbiot coined the term “The Age of Loneliness”. Despite ever closer communication and media networks it is above all the young generation that increasingly struggles with social isolation and difficulties in building relationships. Recent months have focussed attention on the often invisible phenomenon of loneliness.
In his first creation for the Ballett am Rhein, Juanjo Arqués looks behind their apparently protective facades to portray modern searchers.
To remain distanced but breathe together: this is how a company can still understand itself as a body that moves together – even in times like these.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music Marc Mellits
Dramaturge Maurice Lenhard
Set & Costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lights Volker Weinhart
Company Ballett am Rhein Düsseldorf - Duisburg
World première October 2020.
‘The Spanish choreographer Juanjo Arqués is looking for the greatest possible individuality, which is released in a polyphonic furor. Sheets of fabric rise and fall, a dancer appears as a shadow and thus unreachable - Eric White will only meet this woman again in a later scene. And since he is lucky enough to be connected to Feline van Dijken in real life as well, the wonderful duo brings us, in which the two do not have to save on touch.’
— Bernd Feuchtner for Tanznetz.de
Lucia Lacarra returns to Dortmund with a world premiere together with her partner Matthew Golding. The production has a very personal background: surprised by the rapid spread of the pandemic, the two artists spent the time of hard lockdown and rigorous travel restrictions separately from one another. Cut off from the international ballet world, a lively creative exchange began between the two and the choreographers Anna Hop, Yuri Possokhov, Juanjo Arqués and Christopher Wheeldon.
The result, a fantastic inventory of dreams and longings. In an artistic tightrope walk between real dance events and filmic reflection, the dream couple of the international dance scene embarks on a journey through the labyrinth of their hopes. Juanjo choreographed Fordlandia and Pile of Dust for this performance.
CREDITS
Dancers Lucia Lacarra & Matthew Golding
Concept & Art Direction Matthew Golding
Choreographers Anna Hop, Yuri Possokhov, Juanjo Arqués, Christopher Wheeldon
Music Fryderyk Chopin, Georgi W. Sviridov, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Arvo Pärt
Set & Costumes Lucia Lacarra
Lights Florian Franzen
Cinematography Altin Kaftira
Digital Art Mario Simon, Max Schweder
Photos Leszek Januszewski
Company Goldenlac Productions & Ballet Dortmund
World première September 2020.
‘…This is followed by what is probably the most impressive part of the evening: Fordlandia in a choreography by Juanjo Arqués. We are by the sea… In these waves Lacarra and Golding inspire again with a poetic pas de deux.‘
— Thomas Molke for Online Musiz Magazin
Choreographer Demis Volpi and dramaturge Christian Baier decided to tell the eventful story of the legendary train as a kaleidoscope of the dream of a Europe without borders.
Based on the motifs of Agatha Christie’s Murder in the Orient Express, Demis together with choreographers Xenia Wiest, Juanjo Arqués, and Craig Davidson created the first crime ballet in dance history for the NRW Junior Ballet.
The story is told from four different perspectives (the detective, the witnesses, the murderer, and the victim), and each choreographer created one. Juanjo’s perspective was the Witnesses.
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music György Ligeti
Set & Costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lights Bonnie Beecher
Dramaturgy Christian Baier
Company NRW Junior Ballet Dortmund
World première October 2017
For 'Wanderer', set to a piano composition by David Lang, Arqués was inspired by the refugee crisis and, more generally, by everyone who makes radical decisions and goes in a new direction – maybe partly as a consequence of the corona crisis. The five dancers in 'Wanderer' represent a group of friends or family who leave their home in search of a new future and greater stability. In the end, however, each individual has to make their own choices, and not everyone’s dreams come true.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music David Lang – This was written by hand
Pianist Sepp Grotenhuis
Costume design Oliver Haller
Light design Bas de Bruijn
Repetitor Nathalie Caris
Dancers National Ballet Academy
Grace Humphris, Nicola Jones, Alberto Ortega de Pablos, Konosuke Takeoka, Guilherme Vicente
Photographer Sjoerd Derine
World premiere July 2021
‘The best piece on offer was undoubtedly Juanjo Arqués’s Wanderer. Set to David Lang’s whimsical piano music, It’s a work for five dancers and it’s full of interesting tableaux and fascinatingly arrange bodies. It was beautifully danced too, especially by the two ladies, Grace Humphris and Nicola Jones, who looked eminently at home in the flowing expressive movement’
Gerard Davis for Dance Europe
Ignite takes the work of the British painter William Turner The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons as the main source of inspiration. Turner based the painting on the actual event of a fire engulfing the Houses of Parliament in London on October 16, 1834. Londoners gathered along the river Thames to gaze in awe at the horrifying spectacle. William Turner used this disaster as a starting point to express man’s helplessness when confronted with the destructive powers of nature.
William Turner is known for his expressive colourisation, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent, paintings. Dissolved in brilliant swathes of colour and atmospheric effects that border on abstraction, The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commonsfavours the elemental aspects of the conflagration that embodies Turner's style. This in turn becomes the puniness and ephemerality of man's efforts in the face of nature, referred to as the ‘Sublime’ in the Romantic period.
Following Turner’s use of colour to convey the magnificent light and heat of the burning building, Ignite takes the audience on a dynamic colour journey. The eye and mind of the spectators will be triggered emotionally in connection to the symbols, the themes and the colours which are translated from the painting to the stage.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music Kate Whitley
Dramaturge Fabienne Vegt
Set & Costumes Tatyana van Walsum
Lights Bert Dalhuysen
Assistant Jose Carlos Blanco
Company Birmingham Royal Ballet
World première October 2018
Nomination Benois de la Danse 2019.
Critics’ Choice Best Premiere by Ali Mahbouba, Dance Europe.
Finalist Fedora Van Cleef & Arpels Awards 2018.
‘Arqués and Whitley achieve more than description and impression here. Ignite is imbued with a profound sense of catastrophe, and of reckless human vainglory. It seems to sound a warning note to those who would rush in and destroy that which can never be recovered. Luke Jennings for The Observer’
— Luke Jennings for The Observer
Portal is a contemporary dance work using Cuba as its geographic and emotional setting. An island of contrasts, that communicate through its inhabitants in many differing ways.
Portal focuses on seven dancers, individuals, Cubans. It aim to tell their relation to their homeland - both public display and private musings. The idea of personal threshold will be key. Represented by a door. It will act as dividers between contrasting places - for some a burden, others a necessity, for all omnipresent. Cuban culture is addressed. The sense of community, the complex past, a present lived day by day… and a future with very different predictions.
Arqués uses his personal approach of individual/emotional based movement to bring an original perspective of Cuba, being Cuban, and what that means to the Cubans of the 21st century.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music Ariwo
Set Juanjo Arqués & Maykel Gonzalez
Costumes Natalie de Koning
Lights Bonnie Beecher
Assistant Yadai Ponce
Company Acosta Danza
World première February 2019
‘Portal contains a powerful semantic load, it is a metaphor about the uncertainty that reigns in Cuban society, immobile on the threshold of something unknown.’
— Ana León for Cubamanece
With Fingers in the air, Arqués wants to surprise his audience and himself. The concept of his choreography is quite complex, it is a fun and fresh ballet that invites the audience to actively participate in deciding the course of the choreography.
Audience members are provided with a green and a red light during the pause. Through the show a voice-over gradually gives them several opportunities to vote during the performance.
“It feels like making two ballets, consisting of different scenes that can be used as options to build up the structure of the ballet. It will be a live event that will be different every night.”
In addition, the choreography - set to pulsating, electronic music by sound artist Scanner - contains many layers, with many symbols and references. The deep drums and the bass of the music also bring excitement and sensuality to the choreography. Whereas the light and costume design (by Wijnand van der Horst and Oliver Haller, respectively) play an essential role within Fingers in the air, Arqués consciously opted for a simple set design. Because, he says: “The decor is the audience this time. The landscape that they form with each other and with the light”.
CREDITS
Choreography Juanjo Arqués
Music Robin Rimbaud - Scanner
Dramaturge Ineke Kokernoot
Costumes Oliver Haller
Lights Wijnad van der Horst
Voice over Chazia Mouralli
Assistant Jose Carlos Blanco
Ballet Master Caroline Iura
Company Junior Company Dutch National Ballet. World première March 2018
‘The choreography is intense and sensual and has a nice flow. All-in-all, it’s an interesting concept in which Juanjo Arqués excels.’
— Isabella Zijp for Bachtrack
