Ann Ray / OnP

Ballet

New

Play

Palais Garnier

from 06 to 31 December 2017

2h00 with 1 interval

Play

Palais Garnier - from 06 to 31 December 2017

Synopsis


I like creating worlds that have never been seen before.
- Alexander Ekman


A sparkling personality on the contemporary dance scene, Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman has been invited for the first time to work with the dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet. Trained at the Swedish Royal Ballet, he danced with the Nederlands Dans Theater and the Ballet Cullberg before turning to choreography. His language, both visceral and tinged with humour, combines theatricality and classical and contemporary vocabulary alike. Best known for the spectacular quality of his pieces with their dreamlike imagery, he fills the stage of the Palais Garnier with metallic structures, dancers suspended in space, elevations… A surprising production carried along by enticing rhythms and communicative energy.

Duration : 2h00 with 1 interval

Artists

Creative team

Cast

Media

  • The Opera is showing off: Play

    The Opera is showing off: Play

    Read the article

  • Stage memories: Caroline Osmont

    Stage memories: Caroline Osmont

    Watch the video

  • Play: Alexander Ekman choreographs play

    Play: Alexander Ekman choreographs play

    See the slideshow

  • Behind the scenes of Play

    Behind the scenes of Play

    Read the article

  • Octave’s holiday season playlist

    Octave’s holiday season playlist

    Read the article

© Marion Fayolle

The Opera is showing off: Play

Read the article

When illustrators interpret the19/20 Season their way

01 min

The Opera is showing off: Play

By Marion Fayolle

Octave gives free reins to some illustrators to portray their way the 19/20 Season, by revisiting one show poster of their choice. Marion Fayolle decided to illustrate the ballet Play by Alexander Ekman.
© Marion Fayolle

© Ann Ray / OnP

Stage memories: Caroline Osmont

Watch the video

Sujet talks to us about Play

6:57 min

Stage memories: Caroline Osmont

By Octave

The video streams offered by the Paris Opera allow you to discover or rediscover some of the productions that have marked recent seasons. Alongside the videos, Octave invited a number of artists who participated in these productions to add their own personal touch. Willingly playing along, they agreed to film themselves at home in order to relate their experiences, share their memories of rehearsals and performances and discuss the technical and artistic challenges of their roles. They also explain how they continue their artistic activity, whilst waiting to return to the stage and their public.

© Ann Ray / OnP

See the slideshow

Photo coverage

03 min

Play: Alexander Ekman choreographs play

By Nicolas Doutey, Ann Ray

In 2017, Alexander Ekman created his first piece for the Paris Opera Ballet. This season, he comes back and invites the dancers of the company to dive, once more, into his world. Here, play is everything and everywhere. From the props to the sets. For, as the choreographer repeats, play makes us happy; one should never stop being a child. In the Massenet and Blanchine studios, photographer Anne Deniau focusses on certain emblematic props from this production, whilst playwright Nicolas Doutey reflects upon these new visual compositions.


© Ann Ray / OnP

Composition with man on cube, doors, projector and yellow ball. Amongst all the other elements that he works with, Alexander Ekman pays particular attention to visual compositions in Play – sometimes, a chance repetition (as is the case here) also provides him with compositional perspectives.

© Ann Ray / OnP

“Let’s say that one is like a scientist, that one experiments on play in the laboratory.” The laboratory in question is the Massenet Studio, six floors down, in the basement of Opera Bastille; the notebook and the bottle of water are essential props. Alexander directs operations either from his chair or, more often, on stage: the game creates the desire to play, it’s a laboratory where you want to get right inside the test tube.

© Ann Ray / OnP

Balls of different sizes and colours, skipping ropes, a cage on wheels. If the one serves to store the others, it’s only because we are backstage: on stage, everything is a plaything, with or without balls.

© Ann Ray / OnP

“Try and find honesty in the game”, says Alexander frequently during rehearsals. You can’t just pretend to play: if you do, you’re not playing. This is doubtless the reason why, during the three-month rehearsal period, he wanted to give himself time for experimentation and research with the dancers, and with each one, their particular game space. There is a model, there are structures, there are lines, but each time the play is singular.

© Ann Ray / OnP

Hands are on the alert, some of them show it more than others, each in his/her own way. Feet, too, in comfortable trainers, like starting blocks. When one sits down in Play, the urge to play is never far away, one might be tempted to jump up at any moment.

© Ann Ray / OnP

The forty thousand plastic balls constituting the “swimming pool” in the second rehearsal room, the Balanchine Studio, have a particularly amusing characteristic: however one moves amongst them, there are always a couple that start flying about. Each movement creates its counterpoint in the air.

© Ann Ray / OnP

Behind the scenes of Play

Read the article

Last rehearsals

02 min

Behind the scenes of Play

By T. M. Rives

"Astound me!" Challenging Jean Cocteau in this way, Serge Diaghilev, the entrepreneur of Les Ballets Russes, invited the young artist to create for his company. Over a century later, Alexander Ekman, the new wunderkind of dance, has made this injunction his own, and astounds audiences in theatres all over the world, reaching out to them through spectacular and inventive pieces full of mischievous, incisive energy. Play, his first creation for the Paris Opera Ballet on 2017, is typical of his approach, which draws viewers into a whirlwind of sensations while raising serious questions about the world. To original music by Mikael Karlsson, he explores play through the various stages of life, and wonders what adults do with their childhood games. The director T.M. Rives, another fellow traveller, went behind the scenes at the opera and filmed three sequences of the creative process.     

The Buddies

Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « The Buddies »

Meute de Fnerfs

Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « Meute de Fnerfs »

Pas de deux

Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « Pas de deux »

The Off Lady

Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « The Off lady »

© Jean-Pierre Delagarde / OnP

Octave’s holiday season playlist

Read the article

Music

01 min

Octave’s holiday season playlist

By Octave

For your Xmas and New Year holidays, Octave has chosen excerpts from Puccini's La Bohème and from Don Quichotte by Minkus, along with a piece by composer Mikael Karlsson and songs from Gospel singer Gospel Callie Day, both on the bill of Play.

  • Lumière sur : L' Étoile Stéphane Bullion
  • Lumière sur : Alexander Ekman
  • Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « The Off lady »
  • Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « Meute de Fnerfs »
  • Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « Pas de deux »
  • Play - Trailer
  • Play (Alexander Ekman) - Teaser « The Buddies »
  • Les ballets d'Alexander Ekman
  • Alexander Ekman à propos de Play
  • Play - Alexander Ekman

    — By In partnership with France Musique

Access and services

Palais Garnier

Place de l'Opéra

75009 Paris

Public transport

Underground Opéra (lignes 3, 7 et 8), Chaussée d’Antin (lignes 7 et 9), Madeleine (lignes 8 et 14), Auber (RER A)

Bus 20, 21, 27, 29, 32, 45, 52, 66, 68, 95, N15, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Edouard VII16 16, rue Bruno Coquatrix 75009 Paris

Book your parking spot

At the Palais Garnier, buy €10 tickets for seats in the 6th category (very limited visibility, two tickets maximum per person) on the day of the performance at the Box offices.

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €25 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €40 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Palais Garnier
  • Every day from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until performances end
  • Get in from Place de l’Opéra or from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 53 43 03 97

Palais Garnier

Place de l'Opéra

75009 Paris

Public transport

Underground Opéra (lignes 3, 7 et 8), Chaussée d’Antin (lignes 7 et 9), Madeleine (lignes 8 et 14), Auber (RER A)

Bus 20, 21, 27, 29, 32, 45, 52, 66, 68, 95, N15, N16

Calculate my route
Car park

Q-Park Edouard VII16 16, rue Bruno Coquatrix 75009 Paris

Book your parking spot

At the Palais Garnier, buy €10 tickets for seats in the 6th category (very limited visibility, two tickets maximum per person) on the day of the performance at the Box offices.

In both our venues, discounted tickets are sold at the box offices from 30 minutes before the show:

  • €25 tickets for under-28s, unemployed people (with documentary proof less than 3 months old) and senior citizens over 65 with non-taxable income (proof of tax exemption for the current year required)
  • €40 tickets for senior citizens over 65

Get samples of the operas and ballets at the Paris Opera gift shops: programmes, books, recordings, and also stationery, jewellery, shirts, homeware and honey from Paris Opera.

Palais Garnier
  • Every day from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until performances end
  • Get in from Place de l’Opéra or from within the theatre’s public areas
  • For more information: +33 1 53 43 03 97

Partners

  • With the support of AROP

  • Sponsor of the Paris Opera initiatives for young people and of the avant-premières

Media and technical partners

  • Sponsor of the Paris Opera's audiovisual broadcasts

  • Coproducer

  • Media partnership

  • Web broadcaster

  • Partner

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