Ravel by Cherkaoui/Verbruggen

Равель: балеты Шеркауи и Вербрюггена

On the stage of the Royal Ballet of Flanders, two ballets set to Ravel's music are brought together in a single evening.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in Ravel's orchestral version serves as the foundation for a spectacular and refined production titled "Exhibition" by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, while Jeroen Verbruggen stages a story of love and loss set to Ravel's "Mother Goose".
What unites these two works goes beyond their shared composer — it is their approach to interpreting the musical material, an attempt not merely to illustrate the music but to uncover its inner meaning. In the creators' own words, the productions turned out to be journeys through emotions, through light and dark memories.

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Crew

Choreography

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jeroen Verbruggen

Costume designer

Tim Van Steenbergen

Lighting designer

Fabiana Piccioli

About

The French composer Maurice Ravel remains a source of inspiration for any choreographer. Artistic director and star choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and rising talent Jeroen Verbruggen take their vision of Ravel’s music to the stage. Jeroen Verbruggen, who as a young student dancer at the Royal Ballet School won the Prix de Lausanne, has drawn his inspiration from Ravel‘s Pava- ne pour une Infante défunte and from Ma mère l‘oye. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui also translates Ravel into dance, opting for Pictures at an Exhibition, which was originally composed by Modest Mussorgsky, but which was later orchestrated by Ravel to be- come the most widely performed orchestration of this work: It has thus become truly canonical. It is a programme full of surprises with which the Royal Ballet Flanders/ Ballet Vlaanderen might just write a page of dance history.