Les Bal­lets Ac­tu­els

The Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballet of Difference is closing its first season with “Les Ballet Actuels,” a programme that is expanding the season’s vision of redefining ballet’s relationship with the present. The evening brings together three different choreographic voices to explore the relationship between ballet and contemporary music and culture, forms of movement, interaction and coexistence.

The evening begins with one of Richard Siegal’s signature works: “My Generation,” originally created in 2015 for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Musically conceived as a tongue‑in‑cheek critique of the pop industry, this captivating ballet celebrates the subversiveness and exuberance of youth culture. With music by AtomTM and brand‑new costume designs by Flora Miranda, “My Generation” opens the evening with “flashing electricity” (New York Times).

The programme also includes Overcast by rising choreography star Kirsten Wicklund, who currently directs the Ballet Edomonton. In this sparse pas de deux, with lighting design by James Proudfoot, the relationship is explored at its most basic structure. The evening culminates with Justin Peck's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, originally created for the San Francisco Ballet in 2018. Set to the pulsating music of French electro-pop group M83, the work, with a trainers-wearing ensemble, catapults ballet into the rhythms of modern life, blending classical and contemporary in an explosion of energy and joy. "Les Ballets Actuels" presents ballet not as a rigid art, but as a constantly evolving expression of the here and now. It creates a bold vision of ballet as about the present—an art form shaped by, and influencing, the ways we interact with one another now and in the future.