Jiri Kylían’s Falling Angels kicks off this quadruple bill titled ANGELS AND DEMONS. Set to the driving rhythmic percussion of Steve Reich, Falling Angels draws the audience into a unique and mesmerizing cosmos danced by an all-female cast. The evening also includes the company premiere of Kylian’s Petite Mort. Kylián’s ballet is inspired by the ecstatic moment in which new life is created which at the same time hovers close to death. Set to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s elegiacal music, Kylián’s six couples literally dance on knife’s-edge, creating images which sear themselves into the viewer’s memory.

Roland Petit’s iconic Le Jeune Homme et La Mort is a dark and dramatic tale of a young man seduced by a femme fatale who turns out to be death herself. Based on a libretto by Jean Cocteau and set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach, it is a tour de force for the two main characters. Le Jeune Homme et La Mort is the first ballet by Roland Petit to enter the Stuttgart Ballet’s repertory and as such a welcome addition.

A true climax – metaphorically and literally – is the evening’s closing piece, Maurice Béjart’s Bolero, set to the eponymous and well known music by Maurice Ravel. This hypnotic ballet interprets the human climax like no other and leaves audiences as ecstatic as the dancers.