Ukiyo-e

What should we do when everything around us is falling apart? How can we continue to live in an uncertain world? While this is a question we must ask ourselves individually, the answers can also be found elsewhere, and Ukiyo-e invites us to look to the collective. Inspired by this Japanese pictorial movement, translated as “floating world images”, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has composed a profound meditation on resilience for twenty-two performers from the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève. On stage, large mobile labyrinthine structures form a network of impossible staircases. Faced with obstacles and unstable surfaces, the group loses its way, searches for possible paths, is drawn towards the abyss or rises to new heights. Helping or confusing them, electronic melodies and the power of a string trio resonate with them. The insatiable internationally renowned choreographer, newly appointed director of this brilliant Swiss choreographic ensemble, makes each creation an event, as artistic as it is philosophical.

(source: Maison de la Danse programme)