Marcos Morau:
Nachtträume
Choreography by Marcos Morau
“Night Dreams” by Marcos Morau was the ballet event of the year in Zurich in 2022. The Spanish star choreographer’s work is both a choreographic panorama and a profound Gesamtkunstwerk. It presents a hauntingly beautiful dream world in which power, powerlessness, and blind obedience collide: a 90-minute, emotionally charged journey through the darkness and hopes of our present—a mirror reflecting vanity, envy, greed, and social Darwinism.
Drawing on Kurt Jooss’s iconic 1932 anti-war dance drama “The Green Table”, Morau interweaves historical references with quotations from masterpieces by Maurice Béjart, including “Boléro” and “The Rite of Spring” (Le Sacre du printemps). In this revival by the Hessiches Staatsballett, the stage becomes a labyrinth of round tables, chairs, red sun-like spheres, and intertwining bodies, where destruction and seduction, menace and sensuality exist in close proximity.
Recommended for ages 14 and up
Approximate running time: 1 hour 35 minutes
Set design and costumes courtesy of the Zurich Opera House.
Credits
Choreography Marcos Morau
Set Design Max Glaenzel
Costume Design Silvia Delagneau
Music Clara Aguilar (with additional music by Franz Schubert, Sergei Rachmaninoff/Pierre-Yves Plat, Kaizers Orchestra, Friedrich Hollaender/Grausame Töchter, BFRND, Gustave Rudman, Kurt Weill)
Original Lighting Design Martin Gebhardt
Video Tieni Burkhalter
Dramaturgy Israel Solà, Michael Küster
Staging Marina Rodríguez, Fabio Calvisi, Shay Partush
Rehearsal Direction Allison Brown, Luc Jacobs
Set and costumes courtesy of Zurich Opera House.
Queen Christian Klischat, Jorge Moro Argote (alternating)
Trumpet Monika Harder, Andrea Braun, Christine Dobmeier (alternating)
Piano Waldemar Martynel
Dancers
Eden Beckerman, Mathilde Belin, Enzo Boffa, Carley Brooks, Edoardo Brovardi, Daniela Castro Hechavarría, Peng Chen, Gorka Duran Villar, Jackson Haywood, Zoe Jameson, Ramon John, Sayaka Kado, Masayoshi Katori, Bridget Lee, Pere Mauriz González, Milica Mučibabić, Naia Nieto Villanueva, Marcos Novais, Aurélie Patriarca, Elena Pineda Ortiz, Alessio Pirrone, Anthony Michael Pucci, Marie Ramet, Julian Sanchez, Sofie Vervaecke, Shu Ya Wang, Luke Watson, Benjamin Wilson
Trailer
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Pictures
Marcos Morau
Trained in Barcelona and New York, Marcos Morau (born in 1982) studied photography, movement, and theatre. Since graduating from the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University, he has created imaginary worlds and landscapes for the stage, where movement and visual imagery meet and amplify one another.
For more than a decade, Morau has led the artistic collective La Veronal, serving as its director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and lighting designer. The company’s productions have been presented in more than thirty countries at major international festivals and venues, including the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, the Venice Biennale, the Festival d’Avignon, Tanz im August in Berlin, the RomaEuropa Festival, the SIDance Festival in Seoul, Danse Danse Montréal, and Sadler’s Wells in London.
Alongside his work with La Veronal, Morau is a sought-after guest artist, creating new works for leading dance companies and theatres around the world. His collaborations include the Netherlands Dance Theatre, the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Ballett Zürich, Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, the Göteborg Opera Dance Company, Carte Blanche Norway, Lucerne Theatre Ballet, the Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the Ballet de Lorraine, and the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen.
Morau’s work embraces formats and artistic languages in which opera, dance, and physical theatre engage in dialogue, seeking new forms of expression and communication in an increasingly turbulent and rapidly changing world. Alongside his artistic practice, he is also active as an educator, teaching classes and workshops on his creative process at conservatories and universities, including the Institut del Teatre, the University of the Arts Strasbourg, and Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.
Marcos Morau has been awarded Spain’s National Dance Prize and was most recently named Choreographer of the Year 2023 by the German dance magazine tanz.
Marcos Morau wurde mit dem Nationalen Tanzpreis in Spanien geehrt und zuletzt von der Zeitschrift «tanz» zum Choreographen des Jahres 2023 gewählt.
