Amélia

Choreographer Édouard Lock believes that dance, like language, has its power not in the meaning of the words or steps, but rather in their syntax or structure. In Amélia he uses repetition, modification, and the partial isolation of moments through lighting to create the world in flux as he wants us to see it. This piece, while having to do with memories of a transvestite he once knew, deals more with the actual act of remembering. “When the body is in flux it has a relatively abstract and incomplete shape. Memories tend to be like that as well for me,” said Lock. The choreography, while often repeating certain gestures and using hundreds of intricate upper body movements, was constantly unfolding. The dancers seemed to move at speeds of quick to quickest for the entire 90 minute ballet. As a result, the audience was forced to imagine the overall shape of the movements or phrases.—ballet-dance.com