Trisha Brown Revives Rameau Opera Through Dance

"The world premiere is Les Yeux et l'âme (The eyes and the soul), a dance suite distilled from her recent evening-length work, Pygmalion. Brown's staging of the 1748 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau debuted last June in Amsterdam. Les Yeux will be performed to recorded extracts from the opera. In a clip from L'Amour au théâtre (set to sections of another Rameau opera, Hippolyte et Aricie), two couples are clearly engaged in flirty, sensual explorations that, however intricate they get, couldn't be more transparent or intelligible. 'In my operas, in contrast to my choreography, even though I rely on abstract movement, I also respect characterization,' she wrote. 'I proceed with painstaking logic; an expansive embrace of improvisation, spontaneity, as well as a regard for the body's natural capabilities, the natural pathways of its movement.' She adds: 'My movement vocabulary and choreographic structures are imbued with imagery responsive to the libretto and to the emotional content of the libretto and music.'" Trisha Brown Dance Company performs at University of Washington's Meany Hall March 31-April 2, 2011. [Source]