Dutch National Ballet Presents the Premiere of FRIDA
06 February 2020
The coreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa created a short ballet about Frida Kahlo for English National Ballet in 2016 entitled "Broken Wings", titled after Kahlo's biography, Alas Rotas. Ochoa: 'Even before Broken Wings premièred, I felt it should be a full-length ballet, because there was too much happening in too short a space of time.' Therefore it was a 'dream come true' when Ted Brandsen, artistic director of Dutch National Ballet, offered her the chance to develop her ideas in a large-scale new production.
Lopez Ochoa has retained, unchanged, around 25 of the original 45 minutes’ from Broken Wings; has reworked around thirteen additional minutes’ of pre-existing choreography; and added more than an hour of new material. These old and new elements have been woven together seamlessly like a lavish Mexican shawl.
"The striking visual impact in the set and costume designs of Dieuweke van Reij translates Kahlo’s art to the stage through emphatic mimicry without plagiarism. They utilise elements that Kahlo experimented with herself, notably in the painted bodies and eclectic headdresses of the ten male Frida’s. The Mexican fascination with death is well-evidenced in the ubiquitous Dia de Muertos imagery."
Click the link below for more info about the ballet and the dancers.
Click here for the interesting review by Dance International.
