Bella Figura

An intoxicating blend of dream and reality, the visible and the invisible, supreme harmony and sublime beauty, Bella Figura (1995) is a series of Baroque duets, trios and quartets for nine dancers. Set to 17th- and 18th-century compositions by Giovanni Pergolesi, Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello and Giuseppe Torelli, as well as Lukas Foss, Bella Figura explores the esthetic ambiguity of theatrical representation. “Where does performance begin?” Kylián asks rhetorically. “At birth, or when the curtain raises? When does it end — when you walk offstage? What is masquerade: the clothes worn to go out or the costume worn onstage? Where is the division between art and artifice, reality and imagination? I seek the moment where dreams intrude into life, and vice-versa.”