So tonight is the night. You may or may not be doing some kissing, you may or may not be in a romantic mood. It doesn’t really matter. Tonight, I offer you 2 minutes and 47 seconds of pure beauty. And it’s taking place on the stage of the Paris Opera.
Here’s the link it to it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Yw04ZSRyY
On a black stage, a girl, and a boy. They are dressed in white, ample cotton clothes. Her dark hair is down.
The boy is still. The girl starts dancing alongside him. She seems to be conveying physical, almost animal instincts, as she moves around him. Under his right arm, around, and back. She’s in a flow. Sort of wave delicately dashing round and round the boy.
This stage is a place where softness doesn’t clash with passion. Amandine Albisson, the girl dancer, is delicate and violent, calm and agitated at once. She’s the one leading the dance.
All of a sudden, as the flutes in Mozart’s music engage in a crescendo, the girl leans in to kiss the boy, Florian Magnenet. Her arms lift up to reach the sky, and wrap around the boy’s neck. Their lips press against each other’s. As the music takes off, the boy leans a little backwards, his arms along his body, lifting the girls feet a few inches from the floor, their lips still pressed together.
The boy does one step, and another, and starts turning round and round. The girl literally takes off, still kissing the boy. As the flutes play louder, the boy turns round and round even faster, lifting his arms up. The girl is flying, still kissing the boy, her body almost parallel to the floor. Both dancers are completely absorbed by the kiss. Their spiral slowly shifts towards the backstage. They seem to become smaller and small, as if they were absorbed by some energy.
Angelin Preljocaj, world-famous choreographer who created the ballet Le Parc for the Paris Opera in 1994, named this ‘flying kiss’ the ‘abandonment’. Mozart’s light and melancholic flutes, the dazzling simplicity of the dance move and yet its fragility will touch your soul at its heart.
This is it. 2’47 of the purest beauty ever. Happy Valentine everyone!