85 minutes of delight: Spoerli’s “Goldberg Variations” at La Scala

English Review –

Bach’s beautiful Goldberg Variations are undoubtedly an iconic pinnacle of Western music. Heinz Spoerli gives new life to these thirty variations by exploring a new choreographic architecture in which body and movement (and, of course, form) share a new kind of relationship. Spoerli mixes classical steps with discrete athleticism making the dancers interact in the most different ways. The dance moves from playfulness to elegant melancholy – trios, pas de deux and solos follow each other, from variation to variation, and are exceedingly well defined. Here music flows the way life does, in a way.

Spoerli’s Goldberg Variations have no interval, nor elaborate sceneries, and the dancers wear only coloured leotards. As soon as the curtain rises, though, it is easy to realize this ballet doesn’t need anything else. Three years after the Milanese premiere of “Cello Suites”, a new Spoerli’s masterpiece enters the repertoire of La Scala Ballet, on stage until March 22.