Erik Satie, Claude Debussy and many other musicians performed at Le Chat Noir often. After it closed in 1897, the spirit of la vie joyeuse continued, and music written in the “salon style” was still on trend.  ;In this concert, Florence Cheng (soprano) and Cynthia Chan (piano) will perform music in that style, including Mélodies of Satie and Debussy, and piano works by Messiaen.

A dancer for choreographers such as Daniel Larrieu and ChristineJouve, Thomas Lebrun founded his own dance company (Illico) in2000, and was associated with the Choreographic DevelopmentCentre of Dance in Lille from 2005 to 2011, before becoming director of the National Choreographic Centre of Tours in 2012. Lebrun has a strong will to share his art and receive from others. He regularly collaborates with overseas dance companies and dancers (such as the Chinese National Ballet of Liaonning or South Korean artists) and gives a very important place to pedagogy (he teaches at Paris Conservatoire of Music and Dance).

Lied and ballet are two very important artistic forms from the romantic period of the first half of the 18th century. In his latest
production, created in July 2014 at the Avignon Festival, Thomas Lebrun brings them face to face, using the lieder texts as a score and the main source for the choreographic composition. Divided into three acts – the traditional structure in ballet – Lied Ballet proposes a journey from abstraction (1st act) to modernity (3rd act), without eluding references to classical ballet in a second act where eight dancers are joined by a tenor and a pianist for a live performance of famous lieder by Berg, Mahler or Schoenberg.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: THOMAS LEBRUN

In wondering about how current choreographic art is perceived by youth, and with a strong will to develop his art form towards new and larger audiences, Thomas Lebrun imagined a piece conceived to speak to the young (children) and also the not-so-young (teenagers and adults) about diversity, tolerance, indulgence and humanity. By questioning the never-ending relationship with the body (intimate, conflicting, generous, exposed, and overexposed), the choreographer – assisted by his 4 dancers – carries on a reflection on accepting particularities and singularities as expressive forces.

ABOUT THOMAS LEBRUN
A dancer for choreographers such as Daniel Larrieu and ChristineJouve, Thomas Lebrun founded his own dance company (Illico) in2000, and was associated with the Choreographic DevelopmentCentre of Dance in Lille from 2005 to 2011, before becomingdirector of the National Choreographic Centre of Tours in 2012.Lebrun has a strong will to share his art and receive from others. He regularly collaborates with overseas dance companies and dancers (such as the Chinese National Ballet of Liaonning or South Korean artists) and gives a very important place to pedagogy (he teaches at Paris Conservatoire of Music and Dance).