William Forsythe celebrates his 70th birthday on 30 December 2019. He is treasured all over the world as one of the most creative and intelligent innovators of the dance tradition. As long ago as the 1970s, Forsythe revolutionised dance with an unexpected development of academic ballet by completely liberating the human body from the traditional formulae of classical ballet. He enriched the vocabulary of dance with forms that had hitherto been considered incorrect. Movements were fascinatingly distorted, twisted, dismantled and – reassembled – set in a new space. The Ballett Zürich continues its intensive exploration of William Forsythe’s work and celebrates the American choreographer with a homage consisting of three pioneering pieces.

The Second Detail, created for the National Ballet of Canada in 1991, entered the repertoire of many classical companies as one of Forsythe’s early works. An analytical experiment with the geometry of classical dance, which takes the protagonists to the limits of their sense of balance and agility, unfurls against a pulsating, electronic soundscape by Thom Willems.

Innocently exaggerating, then wittily shuffling academic pas, Forsyth pokes fun at the manners of classical artists. Above their habit, carefully settle in fifth position before starting the movement; above the business walk - from the heel, which they proudly removed from the center of the class scene after the successful execution of a particularly sophisticated combination; purely industrial relations between partners; over the ability to subordinate himself to the corps de ballet flock and at the same time the desire to stand out from the masses. Each of the 14 participants is allowed to stand out: in a series of lightning fast solos and duets flashing among the measured accompaniment of disciplined luminaries, considerable risks are inherent - a sudden and sharp deflection during large tours; a zigzag of the case, which exorbitantly complicates the rotation; throwing legs along a lawless trajectory and other voluntaristic escapades.

In the minimalist Approximate Sonata of 1996, Forsythe uses four couples to question the validity of the classical pas de deux. Ballett Zürich will be performing the piece in the new version created by Forsythe for the Ballet of the Opéra de Paris in 2016.

One Flat Thing, reproduced – premièred with Ballett Frankfurt in 2000 – is the final piece in this three-part ballet evening, and adds another facet to the spectrum of Forsythe’s ballet research: inspired by books on expeditions to the South Pole, Forsythe develops an increasingly compact choreography that reaches its climax in the apparent chaos of bodies amidst 20 initially perfectly arranged tables. The choreographer compares these tables with ice – smooth and unpredictably dangerous. Again set to music by Thom Willems, One Flat Thing, reproduced is a breath-taking choreography of pulsation and oblivion.

William Forsythe’s One Flat Thing, reproduced caused a stir when it premiered at Pacific Northwest Ballet in March 2008. Set to a rumbling sound construction by the choreographer’s frequent collaborator, composer Thom Willems, and performed by fourteen dancers on and around twenty metal tables, One Flat Thing thrilled many, challenged others, and, for some, called into question the definitions of “ballet” and “dance.”

Forsythe’s eclectic, intellectual starting point was a consideration of the risk and adventure of Robert Scott’s Antarctic expeditions, during which explorers relied on each other for survival, juxtaposed with his own interest in the idea of a “baroque machinery,” an ornamental, highly organized construct that runs like clockwork. The melding of these thoughts manifested itself in the collaborative development of a movement vocabulary involving high-speed choreography performed within the confines of a tightly spaced set of tables, with the requirement that the dancers play off each other, rather than a musical score, in timing their moves. The result is a thrilling sequence of team choreography, a “baroque machinery” running dangerously close to reckless abandon.