Sao Paulo Dance Company: Goecke, Binyamini, Céspedes

Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg
November 21, 2025

In this varied three-part programme presented by Sao Paulo Dance Company, the dancers filled Ludwigsburg’s Forum am Schlosspark with energy, sometimes exuberant, sometimes tightly bound. Perhaps surprisingly, given that it was the only one of the three pieces not created specially for the company, it was Marco Goecke’s Le Chant du Rossignol, which opened the evening, that led the way in all respects.

Goecke created his work for Leipzig Ballet in 2009. While inspired by notions of a bird in flight, you will struggle to find much other connection with Hans Christian Andresen’s fairy tale of the same name about the sick Chinese emperor and the brave nightingale of the title, however.

As in all Goecke works, his signature is writ large. Wonderfully lit by Udo Haberland, shadows loom large. The dancers, all terrifically sharp, precise, and absolutely together when called for, appear from and disappear back into a deep, never-ending upstage blackness. Light glints beautifully off torsos and faces but even when in the light, the dancers’ quick movements seem to disappear into the surrounding darkness.

The powerful, beautiful choreography fits the dark, driving nature of Stravinsky’s score like a glove. Much is made of Goecke’s quirky hand fluttering and physical spasm-like movement, and there is plenty of that here. But there is and always has been a lot more to his choreography that that. Here, as in other pieces, you don’t have to look too far to find plenty of classical ballet influences too, in hands feet and arms.

Prominent is the desire, the urgency to fly. The dancers are like a flock of birds trying to escape. But even when they do, flying comes with difficulty. Arms wheel in wide-circles that sweep through the air, all suggesting battling a strong wind.

If it started darkly, it ends even more so, a cold, wintry rain falling in the gloom. It was a beautiful if chill picture to round off a startlingly impressive start to the evening.

Le Chant du Rossignol was always likely to be a hard act to follow. So it proved.

The title of Israeli choreographer Shahar Binyamini’s I’ve Changed My Mind is linked to the creation process, and all those moments when dance-makers change their minds, putting ideas aside in favour of new ones. And that is precisely what the work looks and sounds like.

The cast appear in asexual, tight-fitting skin-toned and blue bodysuits that look like the colour has been painted directly on their bodies. The are extremely reminiscent of those for Nijinsky’s Faun, although the choreography lacks that work’s deep sensuality.

It opens to the light and flowing third (Forlane) and fifth (Minuet) movements of Maurice Ravel’s familiar Le Tombeau de Couperin. Gestures appear spontaneous in choreography that, while emphasising the collective in moments of soft unison, includes a lot of individual movement. The choreography, like the music, is very human.

But the movement language and music then change several times as the focus turns more animalistic. A harsher percussive sound brings dance of a similar nature, and we have what looks like birds again, as the cast cross the stage on high demi-point, arms held like folded wings. It may now always flow between sections but I’ve Changed My Mind has plenty of interest, the best moments coming towards the end in a series of short animalistic duets, especially one for two men.

Ataraxia is a new work by Cuban choreographer George Céspedes in which he seeks to address the philosophical concept of fortitude and determination in troubled times. Choreographically, it’s full of geometric, mathematical patterning that gets increasingly complex. Marco Lima’s streetwear costumes help give everything a distinctly urban feel. There are plenty of individual moments but it was just a shade unfortunate that, when called for, the synchronicity slipped every now and again. It did bring the evening to an energetic end, however.