Tricia Dawn Williams

The ballet “Parade” was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 1917 by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, portraying the music of Erik Satie scored to a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau with costumes and sets designed by Pablo Picasso.

“PARADE & the Velvet Gentleman” revisits this historical ballet with contemporary aesthetics and techniques: One of the characters is presented as a stop-motion animation figure projected on the screen while the ‘horse’ (Troisième Manager) adopts a contemporary headdress mask and costume. The scene of the acrobats features a technique known as ‘projection-dancing’: When the dancers enter the stage they appear to cast a shadow on the screen … but this is not really their shadow – it is actually a video projection that develops into a choreographic ‘dialogue’ between the 2 dancers and their own silhouette. The score for this new production is an arrangement of the four-hands version (originally arranged by Satie himself) for one pianist playing on Piano and Toy Piano, with the orchestral percussion part which includes a typewriter, glass bottles, sirens and pistol shots, besides the regular percussion instruments.

Besides “Parade”, this project includes a programme of important piano works by Satie, accompanied by a selection of his poignant writings – depicting a colourful portrait of this unique composer. “PARADE & the Velvet Gentleman” also presents Satie as a key influence on 20th century avant-garde music, prefiguring ‘experimentalists’ such as John Cage and George Crumb.