Bella Figura is a modern ballet created by Jiří Kylián. The music was composed by several artists, including Lukas Foss, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe Torelli. The ballet was first performed by the Nederlands Dans Theater. It premiered on October 12, 1995, at AT&T Danstheater in The Hague, Netherlands.
Choreography
Bella Figura is performed by a group of nine dancers: five women and four men. Kylián described the ballet as "a journey through time, light, and space, exploring unclear or mixed ideas about beauty, performances, and dreams." Dance scholar Katja Vaghi explained that the ballet deals with the difficulty of expressing feelings with words, the mixing of real life and pretend, and how people’s identities can change. Luke Jennings and Deborah Bull wrote that the dance looks like a series of perfect images from a flicker-book, with dancers’ upper bodies twisted, arms moving sharply through the air, and legs stretched very far.
Like many of Kylián’s works, Bella Figura includes influences from the Baroque style, which can be seen in the dance movements, music, and lighting. The lighting was inspired by the art technique called chiaroscuro, which uses strong contrasts between light and dark. In some parts of the ballet, both men and women wear long red skirts and are not wearing shirts. Kylián wanted to make the men and women equal, and the costumes are not meant to suggest anything about gender. A moving curtain is used in the ballet to shape the stage, cover the dancers, and match the movements of the choreography.
Development
In 1995, Kylián, the artistic director of Nederlands Dans Theater, was asked by the editor-in-chief of NRC Handelsblad to create a ballet for the newspaper's 25th anniversary. Kylián was given complete freedom to make creative choices because he believed that true art requires independence. The ballet, titled Bella Figura, includes music from both modern composer Lukas Foss and Baroque composers Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Marcello, Antonio Vivaldi, and Giuseppe Torelli. The music and sound effects were designed by Dick Heuff and Jorn Mineur. The title Bella Figura means "beautiful body" and "putting on a brave face" in Italian.
Kylián also designed the stage set and lighting, which were created by Tom Bevoort. The costumes were designed by Joke Visser and include long red skirts, leotards, tights, and underwear in red, flesh-colored, and black mesh. In some performances, dancers wore skin-colored coverings either because they preferred not to appear nude or because the venue requested it. According to dancer Johan Inger, none of the original cast members objected to performing without clothing.
Performances
Bella Figura had its first performance on October 12, 1995, at AT&T Danstheater in The Hague. Other dance companies that have performed Bella Figura include the Paris Opera Ballet, Boston Ballet, Australian Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Royal Swedish Ballet, Zürich Ballet, and Finnish National Ballet.
Music
- Lukas Foss: Lento and Andante from Salomon Rossi Suite
- Giovanni Battista Pergolesi: "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" and "Quando corpus morietur" from Stabat Mater
- Alessandro Marcello: Adagio from Hobo Concerto
- Antonio Vivaldi: Andante from Concerto for Two Mandolins and Strings
- Giuseppe Torelli: Grave from Concerto Grosso
Original cast
- Brigitte Martin
- Stefan Źeromski
- Philippa Buckingham
- Joeri de Korte
- Elke Schepers
- Ken Ossila
- Lorraine Blouin
- Johan Inger
- Megumi Nakamura