The ballet du Capitole de Toulouse is presenting a completely new show from Saturday 16 October. Innovative in its subject, a dance portrait of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), the witness of an era and inventor of forms and supports, the choreographic creation of Kader Belarbi, dance director of the Toulouse ballet for ten years , is also by the introduction of virtual reality.

At the heart of dance and behind the scenes

For the first time, spectators can benefit from, a supplement, a connected headset to “experience” thirteen sequences as close as possible to the artists on stage, or even behind the scenes thanks to a viewing angle of 210 °. Thus, even at a good distance from the stage, we will be able to plunge into the heart of the dance, of the very trance of the French-cancan which ignited the Montmartre nights … after which the little man feverishly drew on pieces of cardboard.

This proximity, Belarbi, the former principal dancer of the Opéra de Paris, from the very first idea of ​​his project…, found in an exhibition at the Albi museum, where there are a large number of works by the native master of Tarn . A few months later, the one that the critics had recently named “choreographic personality of the year” evoked a show dedicated to Toulouse-Lautrec in an interactive scenography, as close as possible to the spectators. A little “Moulin rouge” perhaps! The Covid-19 put an end to this intention, the confinements and the imperative of barrier gestures called into question the whole ballet.

Remote work during the pandemic

However, during these eighteen months under the pandemic regime, the troop of fourteen nationalities was not discouraged, each working on improvised bars at home under the remote direction of the director busy redesigning his creation. Because Toulouse-Lautrec can dance (with his cane, opening a reflection on protected bodies, a theme dear to Bel), it is on paper that the choreographer sees the movements of his dancers born. Originally scheduled for May 2020 and then the following November, it was under the mask, in large studios in the Montaudran district that the final version was worked on.
Suffice to say that after the rehearsal in Olivier Bériot’s costumes last week, today’s pre-general on Thursday will have a foretaste of accomplishment for the whole ballet. And for his choreographer, it will be a step in a creation like he has never experienced before, on “Le Corsaire”, “Giselle”, “In the footsteps of Nureyev” or “The Nutcracker” (at the end of the program. of the year at the Liceu in Barcelona). Impatience, one will not write the fever, is palpable at the Théâtre du Capitole.