The world-renowned and visionary Canadian choreographer Édouard Lock, founder of the famous contemporary dance group La La La Human Steps, presents two of his short art films on the theme of “dance and architecture” at the Cinema IRIDE in Lugano.
Amelia, a multi-award-winning dance film adapted from the ballet of the same name – presented here in excerpt form –, explores the use of the en pointe technique through long, intertwined solos, complex partnering sequences, and extreme speeds, to generate powerful performances with unexpected moments of sweetness and serenity. Lock creates an intricate choreography for both the camera and the dancers, giving rise to surprising and ever-changing points of view. The original score, composed by David Lang for violin, cello, piano, and voice, combines evocative minimalism with the lyrics of five of Lou Reed's most famous songs, written in the 1960s for the Velvet Underground.
The more recent ÉCHO is a choreographic and cinematographic composition in which lights and shadows form a dialogue with the original music by James O’Callaghan and the movements of Rachele Buriassi, the prima ballerina of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Within a gallery of cinematic mirrors, where shapes and light chase each other along the surfaces like shadow on water, shaping and distorting geometries and bodies, the ballerina peers into herself: her memories float above and below her, each leading to a different resolution. One shared beginning, one source, one end, multiple echos. A world where illusion and dance are derived from feelings of solitude.