Bach to Bach

Choreographer Marie Chouinard, who has already created works based on major scores such as Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring , Chopin's 24 Preludes , and Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, returns here to Johann Sebastian Bach after bODY rEMIX/the GOLDBERG VARIATIONS .

CANTATE , Marie Chouinard's new choreographic work, unfolds to the tune of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata BWV 32. Constructed as a vocal dialogue, the score inspires a mirrored approach. The duet, conceived by the choreographer for Valeria Galluccio on the occasion of her fifteenth anniversary as a performer with Compagnie Marie Chouinard, and Jérôme Zerges, echoes the sung conversation between the two solo voices, soprano and bass, in a play of impulses, listening, and response. The duet then extends into a section for 12 dancers where Bach's cantata also shifts the intimate towards the collective.

 MAGNIFICAT will be danced by the company's 12 performers, with lighting and costumes designed by the choreographer. Sung in Latin, Bach's work for choir, 5 vocal soloists, and orchestra is imbued with the divine. It is the Virgin Mary who speaks, and her words are powerful and exultant. The newly pregnant woman addresses us; she is blissful, sublimely fulfilled. In her gaze, the world is freed from all oppression.