Nocturne

Photo: Joris-Jan Bos
On this photo: Sabine Kupferberg

Choreographer: Martha Clarke

"Photo: Joris-Jan Bos
On this photo: Gérard Lemaître

Choreographer: Jennifer Muller

Martha Clarke created 'Nocturne' in 1978, when she performed it herself.

‘Nocturne’, set to music by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, portrays a fragile, almost mummified female dancer, whose head and face are wrapped in bandages. The lower part of her body is covered by a white tutu, the upper part is naked. A fragile, powerless, and helpless creature, with dance in her mind, but with a body that cannot follow.

The ballet is the theatrical representation of a process of deterioration: a contemporary representation of a 'dying swan', in this version collapsing, and scarcely able to move forward.