Paris Opera Ballet
“Red Carpet” (North America Premiere)
Friday October 3, 2025, 8 PM
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley
AMAZING GRACE
If one reads the announcement of “Paris Opera Ballet”, the assumption might be … ’the performance is French (no!); the show has something to do with an opera story (no!); or that the dance/movement partakes of the ‘classic’ vocabulary of the centuries old tradition of dance developed in European theater. Yes and no. Dance training cannot avoid what has been and is.
Choreographer Hofesh Shechter, originally from Israel, who now works internationally, prefaces his notes on the work with the title “Between Glamour and the Grotesque.” Among many other thoughts and reflections on his work, he says… “The uncomfortable dimension of the grotesque also interests me; it allows us to show the bad and dirty side of reality; the ways humans organize themselves.”
The fourteen dancers first appear in ‘gorgeous’ gowns (one long red gown that can never be ignored) and outfits of various sorts, from formal dress to tailored shorts. A spectacular light chandelier hangs from the ceiling. The musicians (drums, cello, double bass and wind instruments) are seated in an alcove above the dance floor. It all proceeds with vigorous energy, the dancers (seemingly partnering [or not]..one another in endless variations. There are countless small group interactions. All appear to be endlessly ‘improvising’ with one another and yet… the choreography is tight, rhythmically exact, the skill perfect.
Can we grasp what’s going on? Are we meant to…or do we just enjoy the skill, the movement shapes and above all the choreography that challenges the audiences’ ability to watch? There is a musical interlude during which we enjoy the skilled ‘improvisation?’ of the four person ‘band’. They produce wonderful sound.
The dancers all reenter, now all dressed in white leotards. Similar, but more closely knit dance phrases are performed as before, but now seem slower, more careful. We are graced by a few markable solos. All the timing and gesture, that appears random at first, is, if closely watched, exact, precise and skilled.
Shechter in this work, “Red Carpet” has redefined the term ‘ballet’, the expectation of dance ‘narrative’ and thoroughly mixed the vocabulary of ‘ballet’ and contemporary dance.
Thank you… Cal Performances. We, the Berkeley audience may not get to Paris, Israel or other European sites for dance…but we have had the privilege of seeing “Red Carpet” here.
See Cal Performances on line for all program details.