Jeroen Verbruggen – Landgraf on Dance

“Miniatures”
Les Ballets de Monte Carlo
Salle Garnier Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Monte-Carlo, Monaco
April 18, 2026

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo’s recent premiere, Miniatures, takes up the 2004 project of the same title. Back then, Bruno Mantovani, artistic director of the festival Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo and director of the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, challenged Le Ballets de Monte-Carlo’s artistic director, Jean-Christophe Maillot, with seven contemporary compositions. Each of them represented another mindscape; none was written for dance, and Maillot was tasked with choreographies. He was successful. Mantovani threw four new compositions commissioned for this year’s festival into the ring (and also played them with the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain during the run of the program), which former and current dancers of the company put into dance. Two of Maillot’s 2004 works complemented the ninety-minute program. Continue reading “Growing From Solid Roots”

“Stravinsky in Paris” (“Farewell in Paris”/“Le Sacre du Printemps”)
State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
July 30, 2025

Since 1932, the city of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg has hosted an annual summer festival featuring various cultural genres. Many events are held at the Ludwigsburg Palace, a vast complex that served as the Duke of Württemberg’s residence after its completion in 1733. Munich’s State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, whose Stravinsky in Paris marked the festival’s final dance event, performed at the Ludwigsburg Forum near the palace. Last October, the Gärtnerplatztheater showed Troja (“Troy”) by the Greek-born Andonis Foniadakis on its tour to Ludwigsburg. Its display of sexist abuse was annoying. As the press praised Stravinsky in Paris as a “confetti rocket,” I was curious about its “sophisticated dance and music.”
Stravinsky in Paris, a co-production of the Gärtenerplatztheater and the Ludwigsburg Festival, recently premiered in Munich. The double bill combines Jeroen Verbruggen’s Farewell in Paris and Marco Goecke’s Le Sacre du Printemps.
The nonchalant steps of the straw-hatted men who opened Farewell to Paris seemed inspired by a blend of Broadway style and Parisian savoir vivre. In their pale pink of their blazers and pants, they seemed to belong in a little girl’s dream (costumes by Emmanuel Maria). Continue reading “The Art of Embarrassing Oneself”