Ballet Preljocaj, the world famous dance company created by French dancer and contemporary dance choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, came to Singapore in May 2018 for the Singapore International Festival Arts with Playlist #1. As a choreographic repertoire, Playlist #1 presented excerpts from nine of Preljocaj most beautiful solos, duos and ensembles from 1993 till now in a single show.
While this show allowed for an exploratory dive into the choreographer’s rich vocabulary, it also revealed Angelin Preljocaj’s affinity with literature. Beside ballets drawing on fairy tales and short stories such as L’Anoure (adapted from La voix perdue, by Pascal Quignard) or Snow White, Preljocaj also came to the East for inspiration. Exploring the fantastical world of Chinese fairy tales, the piece entitled The Painting on the Wall provides with a good example on how the choreographer worked on bridging literature with dance as well as different cultural sensibilities.
While the dancers are currently working from home—they will hopefully soon be able to come back to the studios to work and prepare for international tours—the ballet company opened its creation process for us to discover with a series of making-off videos, including the The Painting on the Wall.
Discover the creation process of Angelin Preljocaj’s major shows on the YouTube channel of the ballet company: https://www.youtube.com/user/Preljocaj