CREDITS
choreography
Jiří Kylián
staged by
Gerald Tibbs
music
Jiří Kylián (concept), Dirk Haubrich
Ludwig van Beethoven,
String Quartet Opus 18, Nr. 1 in F-major [1799]
Allegro con brio,
Adagio affettuoso ed appassionato
lights
Kees Tjebbes
decor
Jiří Kylián
costumes
Joke Visser
video projection
Tatsuo Unemi, Daniel Bisig
performed by
X dancers
duration
24 minutes
premiere
13 November 2008,
Lucent Danstheater,
Den Haag (NL)
links & downloads
> performance sheet (EN)
> dossier de diffusion (FR)
> context
> full video (password)
> photos high-res (password)
> photos low-res (password)
> technical rider (password)
GODS AND DOGS
Gods and Dogs is the 100th choreography Jiří Kylián created for NDT. This mysterious ballet by the master choreographer visualizes the fine line between normality and abnormality. Or as he puts it: “Surely no positive developments can ever be accomplished without the help of a healthy portion of madness.” Gods and Dogs is called ‘an unfinished work’, referring to Kylián’s fascination for the beauty of what is left incomplete in life. Gods and Dogs won the Dutch Swan Award ‘Most Impressive Dance Production 2009’.
PRESS
"In Gods and Dogs Kylian portrays an indefinable, hallucinating world in which ‘the opposite’, ‘the uncommon’ takes shape in all sorts of manners." de Volkskrant, 2008
"Kylián puts his finger on the other side of reality." de Volkskrant, 2008
"The choreographer has again proven that he has far from dried up artistically. To the contrary: he is in his prime again."
Trouw, 2008
"Hugely experienced as an artist who expresses something through the medium of dance, Kylián has been fascinated in recent years by what cannot easily be put into words, images or steps: the Great Unmentionable." Trouw, 2008
"Truly fantastic how Kylián closes the net of theme, dance, music and design so hermetically, while Nederland Dans Theater’s young team dance brilliantly." Trouw, 2008
"Kylián lets four couples shine in the new Gods and Dogs, to music by Beethoven and Haubrich.’ (…) ‘For his one hundredth Nederlands Dans Theater ballet, he has made his darting kinetic language, so full of sudden swings and accents, less polished. Rougher and inimitably ingenious." NRC Handelsblad, 2008
"Gods and Dogs does not impress through pretty shapes, although it does have beautiful movements; it grates and wrings. This ballet is big in atmosphere, partly through the spectacular stage image, a wildly swinging iron curtain, but is not really moving." Algemeen Dagblad, 2008
"Gods and Dogs is one of those works whose rare beauty and emotive power so overwhelms you, that you feel you’re losing your sanity" Dance Europe, 2009