Choreography by Jiří Kylián
Assistant to Choreographer: Roslyn Anderson
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(Six German Dances, KV 571)
Scenery and costumes by Jiří Kylián
Lighting by Joop Caboort

Timing: 14:00

Two centuries separate us from the time Mozart wrote his German Dances. A historical period shaped considerably by wars, revolutions and all sorts of upheavals. With this mind, I found it impossible to simply create different dance numbers reflecting merely the humor and musical brilliance of the composer. Instead, I have set six seemingly nonsensical acts, which obviously ignore their surroundings. They are dwarfed in face of the ever present troubled world, which most of us for some unspecified reason carry in our souls.

Although the entertaining quality of Mozart’s Sechs Tänze enjoys great general popularity, it shouldn’t only be regarded as a burlesque. Its humor ought to serve as a vehicle to point towards our relative values. Mozart’s ability to react upon difficult circumstances with a self-preserving outburst of nonsensical poetry is well known.

-Jiří Kylián

Sechs Tänze received its World Premiere by the Nederlands Dans Theatre at the Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam on October 24, 1986.

Sechs Tänze was given its American Ballet Theatre Company Premiere at City Center, New York on October 30, 2003.