Joaquin de Luz meets New York with the ballet Inger “Carmen”

New York, April 13 (EFE). Spain’s Joaquín de Luz, Director of the National Dance Company (CND) and principal dancer of the New York Ballet for 13 years until 2018, today met with New York to present the ballet “Carmen” inspired by the opera Bizet and designed by Swede Johann Enger.

The performances of the CND dancers, who today gave the first of six performances they will perform at the New York show of a work considered among the company’s most successful, were generously praised by the audience at the Joyce Theater in the Chelsea neighborhood. Seven years after its 2015 premiere, even before De Luz arrived.

The star was undoubtedly lead dancer Kayoko Everhart as Carmen, loaned by Alessandro Riga (Don Jose) and Isaac Montlor (Escamillo), as well as the 20 dancers who traveled from Spain for this week of partying.

CND played it safe with this choreography by Inger that maintains a classic tone, thanks mainly to Bizet’s signature music, but has more contemporary action, with its minimalist scenery achieved simply by nine prisms that move around the stage and shift into concrete blocks, doors or mirrors.

The dancers wear David Delevingne’s costumes in this Andalusian air with their hair tied up in a bun (except for Carmen, who always wears it loose), as well as the ruffles on skirts they wear most of the time, while the men wear less “racist” clothes, with the exception of the Escamillo bullfighter.

While the air of the first part is more festive and colorful, with playful Carmen flirting with men, the sense of tragedy moves ominously to the second part, where black colors, smoke-filled scenes and motifs dominate. Across the floors in gray robes.

In this second part, Bizet’s music is less present, and the contributions of Marc Alvarez are heard more, who, although inspired by the original tunes, fills it with a darker and more charged atmosphere, all as a prelude to Carmen’s tragic death by her deserted lover.

As Inger said at the time of its 2015 premiere, CND’s “Carmen” does not strive to be “ultra-modern”, but rather “generous, amusing, rich and poetic”, so the aesthetics, music and dance itself do not exist in this version of Carmen the difficulties of some Radically modern business, but it can be appreciated by the diverse audience attending the premiere in New York.

fjo / ics

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