French ballet to hit town

French ballet to hit town

JAKARTA (JP): With the Lyon Opera Ballet in town, Jakarta's small but growing coterie of ballet aficionados will once again be able to savor some of the most admirable samples of what contemporary Western ballet has to offer.

One of France's best known ballets besides that of the Opera de Paris, the Lyon Opera Ballet will perform March 27 through 29 at the Graha Bhakti Budaya theater in the Taman Ismail Marzuki art center complex, Cikini, where the final rehearsals and gala opening were also held yesterday (see picture).

Although more than most other art forms, dance, as the modestly printed program booklet notes, is a universal language, this alone does not explain the praise which the troupe has earned itself during its earlier tours through Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Pacific region.

Creativity and innovative artistic expression as well as complete mastery of both classical and modern dance techniques are among the hallmarks of the Lyon Opera Ballet, as may be seen for example in Stamping Ground, a creation of dancer and choreographer Jiri Kylian inspired by an Australian Aborigine ritual dance.

The ballet's appearance in Jakarta, its first in Indonesia, was made possible through the cooperation of the Taman Ismail Marzuki art center with the French Cultural Center. On its current tour the troupe has 28 dancers led by director Yorgos Loukos, resident choreographer Bill T. Jones and ballet masters James Vincent and Gerald Joubert. (hpr)