Lyon Opera Ballet showcases Beethoven and 3 powerhouse female choreographers

Lyon, France

THREE dances. Three major choreographers. Three renditions of Beethoven's Grosse Fugue. That's the simple yet audacious idea behind the Lyon Opera Ballet's Trois Grandes Fugues, which offers two pieces, by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Maguy Marin, already in its repertory, and a new work by US choreographer Lucinda Childs.

That the choreographers are all women is a fact you might not even remark about if it weren't for the recent rumblings about the lack of female choreographers in the ballet world. It makes sense that these choreographers come from the contemporary dance field, a contrasting stronghold for female dance-makers. (Interestingly, Twyla Tharp, too, recently choreographed a work using this music.) The 35-member Lyon company, directed by Yorgos Loukos since 1988, has long had an exceptionally ambitious and diverse repertory, avoiding the big classical ballets (which can be done better by larger companies) to showcase an amazingly broad variety of choreographers, from Merce Cunningham to Rachid Ouramdane.