SEE YOU & HERMAN SCHMERMAN

Where does a show begin, when does a performance end? Isn't our world itself a vast theatre where the simple fact of living in society makes us spectators as well as actors? For his first creation made "solo" for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Paul Lightfoot leads us onto intimate terrain and offers us a ballet that he hopes marks a turning point in his personal and professional life. More than ever, the notion of living art feeds into a work where the choreographer questions his relationship with others and the necessary collective dimension of a work. Unlike a painter who works in the solitude of the studio, the choreographer weaves a story with the dancers so that movement is born. Creating a work is necessarily composing with the people around us, it is embroidering the threads that they hold out to us into a canvas in which the theatre of our lives appears.

William Forsythe's iconic ballet, Herman Schmerman is the second work that the choreographer created for the New York City Ballet, a company that deeply influenced him during his years at the Joffrey Ballet School (after "Behind the China Dogs" in 1988). In 1992, he received a commission for the festival of new choreography, the Diamond Project. He then conceived Herman Schmerman as a 12-minute quintet for three women and two men, to electronic music by Thom Willems. Later that year, he took the piece on again with his own company in Frankfurt and added a second section - a pas de deux. The pieces revolutionises neoclassical aesthetics and will be danced by the best!

SEE YOU (creation) - PAUL LIGHTFOOT
Choreography: Paul Lightfoot | Assistant choreographer: Mikaela Kelly | Music: Max Richter, performed live by Liza Kerob (1st violon), Kati Szutz (2nd violon), Federico Hood (Alto), Thierry Amadi (1st cello), Thibault Leroy (2nd cello), Simon Zaoui (piano) - Kate Bush | Sets & Costumes: Paul Lightfoot, supervision of the costume design: Joke Visser, in collaboration with the Costume Department of the Ballets de Monte-Carlo | Lighting: Paul Lightfoot, realization: Samuel Thery | Premiere: 23 October 2025 at the Salle Garnier, Opéra de Monte-Carlo | Duration: 50 min

HERMAN SCHMERMAN - WILLIAM FORSYTHE
Choreography: William Forsythe | Music: Thom Willems | Lighting design: Tanja Rühl | Stage design: William Forsythe | Costume design: William Forsythe, Gianni Versace | Staged by: Stefanie Arndt & José Carlos Blanco | Premiere: 26 May 1992 as part of the Diamond Project, New York City Ballet, New York State Theater, New York (quintett), 26 September 1992, Ballet Frankfurt, Opern House, (full version) | Duration: 25 min