Light - Prelude/One Ball/6 Breaths

Lumière is an evening of three choreographies by prominent contemporary dance artists: Medhi Walerski, Jiří Kylián and Rafael Bonachela. They are united by extraordinary musicality, sensitivity to the relationship between dancers and an interest in time, transience, closeness and fragility of life. An important component of all three works is light, which co-creates the space of movement, brings bodies out of darkness and builds the emotional world of the spectacle.

The evening opens with the Polish premiere of Medhi Walerski's Prelude, inspired by the music of Lera Auerbach. The tension between piano and violin becomes for the choreographer a picture of man's relationship with time and fate. The piano represents a force from which one cannot escape, the violin — the human response and the attempt to free oneself from invisible limitations. Dancers seem to be looking for a way out, crossing invisible boundaries, creating and losing relationships. This tension permeates the physicality of the choreography, which gradually dissolves into a world reminiscent of a dream or a memory.

In Un Ballo by Jiří Kylián, movement grows out of musicality, partnership and sensitivity. Subsequent couples emerge from the twilight, meet in subtle duets and disappear into it again. Under the apparent lightness of the choreography, there is a reflection on transience, memory and the closeness of life and death. The ascetic space and candlelight create a world at once intimate and fleeting. Beneath its apparent lightness is an awareness of transition—inspired by Maurice Ravel's music and the images of life and death existing side by side.

6 Breaths by Rafael Bonachela leads this reflection towards the most basic rhythm of life — the breath. Six parts of choreography, created to the music of Ezio Bosso, lead from the first to the last breath. The movement becomes a record of the physical and emotional states of a person, combining intimacy and fragility with the intensity of team scenes. It is complemented by projections by Tim Richardson, in which scattered fragments gradually form immobile human figures. Their statics contrast with the live, breathing bodies of the dancers, highlighting one of the central themes of the work. 6 Breaths was awarded as “the best ballet performance in Poland” of the 2025/26 season (“Men's Play — summary of the ballet season 2025/26", Benjamin Paschalski).

The three choreographies are arranged in a single arc: from the attempt to face time, through encounter and awareness of the passing, to the most elementary sign of existence — the breath. Lumière does not tell a single story. It creates a space in which dance allows us to see what is impossible to stop: the moment, the relationship, the breath, the light.