High heels too

PRODUCTION TYPE: CULLBERG UP CLOSE

Canadian choreographer Benoît Lachambre creates a new piece for six of the Cullberg Ballet dancers, with world première in Stockholm in March 2013. The idea for the new work came when Lachambre took part in a contemporary dance project at one of Montréal’s burlesque clubs, and created a solo on high heels for a dancer. In the new piece for Cullberg Ballet; High heels too, Lachambre collaborates with costume designer Alexandra Bertaut, visual artist Laurent Goldring, both based in Paris, and the New York-based composer Hahn Rowe. 

In his first work for the company, JJ’s voices (2009), Lachambre was inspired by Janis Joplin’s music. The dancers carried her songs through their bodies. After three years on the company’s repertoar, it has become a small success on the international stages. 

High heels too (2013)
Choreography Benoît Lachambre
Music Hahn Rowe
Installation concept Laurent Goldring, made by Alexandra Bertaut and Laurent Goldring
Video Laurent Goldring  
Costume design Alexandra Bertaut
Lighting design Fredrik Rydehäll
Assistants to the choreographer Hanna Hedman and Lisa Drake

Dancers: Jac Carlsson, Mirko Guido, Johanna Lindh, Gesine Moog, Adam Schütt, Patricia Vázquez

Duration approximately 60 minutes, no intermission.
Read moreFold up

VIDEO TRAILER

VIDEO

Press cuttings

"Crucial and truly outstanding is the music. If there is a story in High heels too, it is told by Hahn Rowe's exquisite, sophisticated live-electronica, intimately influencing and being influenced by everything taking place on stage. Beginning with hardly audible crackles and glitches, continuing with repeating synthetical bird song and icing bows. Hahn Rowe creates a room within the room, deepening and reinforcing the totality. High heels is hardly a dance blockbuster, but one of the most poetic, thought provoking works I have ever seen with Cullberg Ballet.

Narrow, yet not difficult. Definitely sublime. Absolutely stunning." Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter, 3 March 2013

 

"High heels too is a perspective play with body, gender, room, tension and shifts between the artificial and the intuitive - also emphasized by Hahn Rowe's subtle composition of sound and electronic beats. The piece moves from surface to interior with an accelarating pulse. With is sculptural qualities the piece could also be presented in an art context - the dancing doesn't begin until the end."

The movements are transmitted from the spine and outwards. That is the core of Lachambre's body concious movement philosophy. The outwork helps us see; the visual and auditory totality captures the interest almost all the way. It could have been banal but is suggestive and beautiful." Anna Ångström, Svenska Dagbladet 3 March 2013

 

"High heels too is a poetic play with the interaction between the body and everything contributing to changing its original shape, or if preferred, a study in man's obsession of changing identity."  Lena Andrén, Nummer.se, 2  March 2013

Choreographer

Benoît Lachambre Photo: Carl Thorborg

Canadian choreographer, artist, improviser, teacher and artistic director of Par B.L.eux. in Montréal, Benoît Lachambre has been a part of the international dance community for the past thirty years, devoting himself to an exploratory approach of movement and its sources. Elements of the visual and performance arts are inseparable from dance in his works. Par B.L.eux is devoted to contemporary and interdisciplinary choreographic creation, and the close connection to an international network of artists. Benoît Lachambre is part of many different artistic projects, he has participated in films and been awarded several times for his works. The work with Cullberg Ballet was his first in Sweden.

Composer

Hahn Rowe Photo: Alexandra Giertz

Composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Hahn Rowe has worked with Hugo Largo, David Byrne, Antony and the Johnsons, Glenn Branca, Swans, R.E.M., Moby, and Foetus, among many others. He is a three time NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) recipient and his long-standing collaboration with Berlin/Brussels based choreographer Meg Stuart (Damaged Goods) has resulted in the creation of eight evening length dance/theater works. Also active as a composer for film and television, Hahn Rowe has created scores for films such as Clean, Shaven by Lodge Kerrigan, Spring Forward by Tom Gilroy, Married in America by Michael Apted and Sing Your Song by Susanne Rostock.

Visual artist

Laurent Goldring Photo: Alexandra Giertz

Visual artist Laurent Goldring was born in Paris in 1957 and lives, sculpts, draws and makes videos in Paris. He studied philosophy before photography, video and media art. Since 1995, his work has focused on the representation of the body, and a questioning of the domination of the analogue image (photo, film, video) by revealing how limiting it can be. His approach has been of great interest to a number of choreographers, whose process follows the same questioning. He is currently working on spaces, according to the main idea that "space is an organ." This idea led to the recent pieces co-choreographed with Saskia Hölbling and Isabelle Schad. The installation made for Benoît Lachambre in High heels too is directly linked with this process, as well as his most recent films.

Costume designer

Alexandra Bertaut

Alexandra Bertaut was born 1973 in Paris and livet and works in Paris and other places. She in an explorer who sees the body as a subject, not a pretext. Alexandra Bertaut works with defining and shaping spaces and relations between for example identity - individuality, multifaceted - social being. She started out with studies in art, fashion and design and has since continued her research with Carlotta och Caterina Sagna, Edmond Russo och Shlomi Tuizer, Frank Micheletti, Fabrice Lambert, Maud Le Pladec, Herman Diephuis, Thomas Quillardet, Richard Siegal, Su-feh Lee and Benoît Lachambre.

Read an interview with Alexandra. 

Assistant to the choreographer

Hanna Hedman Photo: Alexandra Giertz

Hanna Hedman studied at the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm. She holds a diploma as a Somatic mouvement educator from the body mind centering school. Since 1996 she lives in France. As a choreographer she made the piece California Roll in collaboration with Isabelle Schad and good work productions. The work premiered in the festival Tanz im August in Berlin and has toured internationally. She has been working as a dancer, performer and assistant or outside eye with various artists such as Alain Buffard, Philippe Blanchard, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Olga de Soto, Isabelle Schad, Fabrice Lambert and many others. She has collaborated with Benoît Lachambre for over 10 years and High heels too is the second time they work with the Cullberg Ballet.

Performance images