Kylián: Last Touch First at Den Norske Opera & Ballett

While three of Ji?í Kylián's most famous works are danced in the Main House, Kylián – Last Touch First in the Second House shows off a completely different side of the choreographer's art.

They dance slowly, slowly: three women and three men, in big, rococo-inspired costumes. «The characters don’t have names, but they do have identities: the young romantic, the randy old man, the woman who drowns her sorrows in drink. Much has passed among these characters, much has been repressed. It's all about to explode.» Thus wrote The New York Times after seeing Last Touch First performed by Nederlands Dans Theater.

The Norwegian National Ballet dancers will now bring the characters to life – dancing in slow motion, with enormous physical control – to a horror-movie score by Dirk Haubrich, Kylián's regular composer.

«You might think all this slow motion would make for a boring work. It doesn't. You’re almost too active to be bored — looking here and there, wondering what’s going on with these intriguingly unhappy people,» as Arts Journal put it.