Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances l

2019 · Hessisches Staatsballett

Created for Hessisches Staatsballett and performed live with the Eliot Quartett, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances is an homage to Jules Perrot’s Pas de Quatre and an exploration of one of my favourite choreographic formats: the divertissement.

The word divertissement comes from the French diversion or amusement — a form traditionally associated with pleasure, entertainment and virtuoso display. But entertainment  can also become a means of achieving insight or intellectual growth. It can be playful while carrying an idea, posing a task, or creating the conditions for a different kind of attention. 

Working with Bartók’s collection of folk dances, the piece embraces the pleasure of watching dancers dance: virtuosity, musicality, variation and display. At the same time, this pleasure becomes a dramaturgical strategy. What appears to be simply entertaining can invite the audience to look more closely, recognise patterns and differences, and engage with the ideas embedded within the form itself.