Universal Ballet

Black cake

Universal Ballet Premiere LG Arts Center on October 17, 2008
Choreography Hans van Manen
Music Peter I. Tchaikovsky – Third movement from Symphony nr. 6 (Pathétique) in b minor / Leos Janácek-Adagio / Igor Stravinsky-Scherzo à la Russe / Pietro Mascagni- Intermezzo from the opera L’Amico fritz / Jules Massenet-Méditation from the opera Thaïs
Staging Mea Venema
Set Design Keso Dekker
Costume Design Keso Dekker
Running Time 22 minutes

Party guests enjoying each other’s company, drinking champagne and dancing a Tango.

Black Cake was created in 1989 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Nederlands Dance Theater. A light, black confection, perfumed with a thin layer of sarcasm and doused with champagne, the work is a typical example of van Manen’s relativistic humor. The six pairs of dancers in Black Cake are party guests, having a good time, drinking champagne and dancing the Tango. The work is arranged as a five layer cake, and each layer has its own special flavor. The dancers flirt with each other as they get more tipsy, and compete to see who can do a more impressive paso doble, and the dancing drifts in and out of bebop and waltz.

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