‘The Place of Choice’ by composer Henry Vega in a dance production by the Stuttgart Ballet.

The realm between earth and sky pulsates with energy. NOVITZKY/DAWSON presents works that explore the contrast between the earthly and the spiritual in choreographies by two distinct artists. Roman Novitzky and David Dawson’s ballets, both created for large ensembles, offer these choreographers’ statements on our current world.

Roman Novitzky, Stuttgart Ballet’s Artist in Residence, drew inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy for the ballet The Place of Choice. Drawing from personal reflection on the social and political zeitgeist, Novitzky’s ballet shows how daily decisions direct the course of humanity in one direction or another, for better or worse. Diverging from Dante’s chronology, the protagonist in Novitzky’s ballet moves from paradise through purgatory to arrive in inferno. The work features Novitzky’s innovative movement to a commissioned composition by Henry Vega, raising the questions: who are we, where are we headed, and what are we doing to ourselves as a society?

David Dawson is one of the leading dance makers of our time. His works elevate classical ballet to new heights, taking dancers to their physical limits to create breathtaking moving works of art. For Symphony No. 2 “Under the Trees’ Voices” to music by Ezio Bosso, Dawson presents pure beauty on the stage in his first work for the Stuttgart Ballet. Inspired by the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and featuring some of the company’s most accomplished dancers, the ballet creates an atmosphere of awe – “But the airs… but the spaces…” – and transforms dance into poetry in motion.