Urban Ballet

Hip Hop Ballet
9 February, 2013 – 6.30 pm at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir

« Beyond classical dance and hip hop, a hybrid style that transcends all genres »

Urban Ballet produces a skillful melange between classical music and hip hop inspired movements. The result is unique work of art, tinged with the myriad influences of its choreographer.

Inspired by classical ballet, Urban Ballet, is composed of four acts that show four incarnations of the body. Each of the ten dancers tries to express artistic singularity through a gesture that slowly frees itself from the usual hip hop “delivery” and evolves in a universe, borne by the standards of classical music repertoire.

«The pure, sombre notes of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater are answered by a sensual solo playing on the male / female ambiguity. The dramatic tension of Ravel’s Bolero throws up nine dancers in stretched out lines, multiplying sculptural poses…Franck II Louise’s orchestral composition, specially written for ballet, conjures up an ensemble of ten dancers. In Urban Ballet, the relationship between dance and music is questioned by the yardstick of another objective: to mix urban dance and a classical score to embody other possibilities.”(Irène Filiberti).

Coming from the street hip hop of the 80’s, Anthony Egea has constantly questioned and refined this dislocated expression of the body. Artistic director and choreographer of the company Rêvolution, his creations develop the hip hop style by setting its vocabulary against other languages. At the Rosella Hightower School in Cannes, he discovers the repertoire of classical ballet that would influence his work and push him to propose a new vision of hip hop, to restore “it’s badge of honour” by incorporating classical music and expressions. He would later also train at the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York.

Today, success and fame have not curbed the imagination of Anthony Egea, who still has every intention of continuing to “Rêvolutionise” hip hop.

Photos & press articles of the event here.