BALLET DE L'OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS - PLAY

From November 7 to 27, 2022.

Like a joyful return to the carefree and mischievous days of our childhood, choreographer Alexander Ekman’s PLAY transforms the stage into a dazzling playground. Appearing as astronauts, clowns or majestic deer, the 36 dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet dive headlong into a ball pit, immersing themselves, and the audience, in a festive and fairy tale imaginary world without limits. A firework display of marvellously bizarre scenes.

Combining dance, theatre, music and song, the Swedish choreographer’s work looks at play in various life stages, and asks why adults seem to lose their ability to indulge in the spontaneous fantasy of childhood games. From the choreography to the costumes to the avalanche of props on stage, the world of PLAY is surprising in every way. Like the deluge of 40,000 balls that floods the stage, the choreographic ideas, each more creative than the last, rain down in abundance. Alexander Ekman draws us into his whimsical stories and zany dances, making us forget our everyday lives as if by magic. A dance of the moment made of silliness and childlike spontaneity.