Lyon Opera Ballet: Trois Grandes Fugues

The work of three women, seminal figures in contemporary dance, converge on a single piece of music in this unique program that has wowed critics and audiences worldwide.

American Lucinda Childs and Belgian Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker established their reputations in the 1970s with their uncanny ability to visually match the music of minimalists like Glass and Reich. Maguy Marin may now be the Grande Dame of French dance but the fierce radicalism of her early 80s work remains undimmed. She is the only choreographer ever to have directly collaborated with Beckett.

Over the years each has taken on the same fearsome musical challenge: The Great Fugue for strings- that enigmatic and ever-confronting masterwork by Beethoven. Here, their interpretations are performed back to back by the Lyon Opera Ballet with stunning virtuosity.

The three works – each to a different recording – couldn’t be more varied. Childs: elegant and mathematically precise, De Keersmaeker: wild and free-spirited (small wonder Beyonce gave in to the temptation to rip her off!), Marin: an earthy, reckless blood red rage against death.

As we celebrate 250 years since Beethoven’s birth, this thrilling riposte to River Phoenix’s assertion that “You can’t dance to Beethoven” is unmissable.