Quartet / Death and the Maiden, Julien Lestel Company , 2017

In Jeune Fille et la Mort (death and the maiden), four musicians and 10 dancers come together in perfect harmony to perform Franz Schubert's quartet No. 14. With power and delicacy, they express together the lyricism that was so unique to this composer, a combination of candor and a somber view of the theme of death as consolation.
The choreography reflects the world of the music, a lullaby to welcoming death, but also translates the mad hope of living and resisting the inevitable. One dancer plays the maiden and the others represent death, illustrating the poem by Mattias Claudius that Schubert set to music in this quartet.
Pictured: Aurora Licitra as the maiden. From left to right: Florent Cazeneuve, Zélie Jourdan, Matisse Coelho-Mandes, Ivan Julliard, Marco Vesperini, Julie Asi, Gaël Alamargot, and Mara Whittington.