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The Arts Intel Report

Ballett Zurich: Of Light, Wind and Waters

Jan 18 – Mar 20, 2025
Falkenstrasse 1, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are the bleakest of the lot. His hapless creatures are punished not only for their vanity but for desire, ambition, fidelity, self-sacrifice, a love of the beautiful and the good—in short, everything. Which seems to have spoken to modern ballet choreographers, who have appealed to the Danish source for their tragico-mystical (The Fairy’s Kiss), absurdist (The Steadfast Tin Soldier), gruesome (The Little Mermaid), and melodramatic (The Red Shoes) needs. Now it’s Kim Brandstrup’s turn. The Danish expat was rocked to sleep to Andersen’s imaginings. So it’s no wonder that during his long London career he was drawn to the grimly fatalistic, whether in choreographic assignments for high-profile productions of the Britten opera Peter Grimes and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck or in his own gritty ballets. Yet for the gently titled premiere Of Light, Wind and Waters for Ballett Zurich—which does not stick to a single tale so much as “combine motifs from various tales”— the advance press promises an evening “for the whole family.” That would probably depend on the family. —Apollinaire Scherr