The Artistic Director on León & Lightfoot: Salle de danse

The choreographic duo first worked with the Norwegian National Ballet in 1999. Many of us who were dancers at the time remember that first rehearsal as if it were yesterday. In the years since then, the two have left a profound mark on both the company and our audiences. 

When we presented our first full-length evening of their works in 2005, something happened that I will never forget. Before the premiere, hardly any tickets had been sold. Afterwards, interest exploded. People stood in long queues outside the old opera house at Youngstorget, every performance sold out, and León and Lightfoot became names people talked about. It was as if modern ballet had broken through a sound barrier: Sol and Paul made the genre accessible to everyone. 

Since then, works such as Softly As I Leave You, Subject to Change, Skew-Whiff and Shoot the Moon – all with titles beginning with S – have remained among the strongest audience experiences we have had. I believe this is due to their wholly unique ability to reach us as human beings. They bring out something recognisable, something vulnerable, funny or heartbreaking, and then intensify it just a little more. A little deeper. A little larger. With razor-sharp stage images, powerful emotions and unparalleled precision. This is how they create works that stay with us for a long time. 

Shoot the Moon, which turns 20 this year, is perhaps the foremost example of this. Time and again, I have seen how this work affects audiences. The stories that unfold behind the moving walls and through windows into other people’s lives, with video cameras revealing what would otherwise have remained hidden. In one way or another, the work finds something in us exactly where we are in life. That is why I also know that it holds a strong place in many people’s hearts. 

This time, Shoot the Moon is joined by the evening’s title work – Salle de danse, now receiving its Norwegian premiere. The company is set for a true test of strength as no fewer than 40 dancers fill the stage in what is a tribute to the daily ballet class and to the collective nature of our art form. Ilya Demutsky has composed new music for the work – a life-affirming, playful score in which each of the 20 movements has its own distinct character and colour palette. 

Over the past few weeks, the rehearsal studios in our house have been filled with the very particular energy that arises when Sol and Paul are at work. They two of them are like sun and moon – very different, yet together they form a rare artistic partnership. Their infectious passion goes hand in hand with an uncompromising approach and a precision that places great demands on everyone involved. They push us forward, refine the details and meet the people around them with immense curiosity and interest. 

It has been especially moving to see them encounter a new generation of dancers in the company. More than 20 of León and Lightfoot’s works have been performed on our stages, and this repertoire has helped shape the Norwegian National Ballet into what it is today. At the same time, something new emerges when today’s dancers take ownership of the material and make it their own. 

Over the years, Sol and Paul have found a second home in Oslo, as they themselves say. They often speak of how the light, the atmosphere and the people here have influenced their work. Here they have been creative and developed works further; here they have found inspiration and returned again and again. Now it feels like the continuation of a line to be able to welcome them back with our first full León & Lightfoot evening in ten years. 

I would like to extend my warm thanks to our co-producers, The Royal Ballet in London and the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm. This collaboration has given the production a greater life and made it possible for even more dancers and audiences to discover León and Lightfoot’s utterly distinctive universe. 

With the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra and conductor Matthew Rowe in the pit, and the Norwegian National Ballet on stage: Welcome to León & Lightfoot: Salle de danse. 

Ingrid Lorentzen 
Artistic Director, Norwegian National Ballet