Hofesh Shechter's "Red Carpet": Palais Garnier sees red
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In "Red Carpet," Hofesh Shechter's signature is inscribed in capital letters, in frenetic movements carried, but also hindered, by the collective momentum, in a constant play between symmetry and escapes. Julien Benhamou / Opéra de Paris
Created for thirteen magnificent dancers from the Paris Opera Ballet, Red Carpet travels from frenzy to purity, in a play of striking contrasts, enhanced by the beauty of a stage design mirroring the Palais Garnier.
The evening is over, the guests have left. Well, almost all of them. Thirteen latecomers are playing extra time. In their sequined outfits, where kitsch vies with chic, they launch into an intense, tight collective dance, whose figures evoke variety shows revisited by some hyperactive gymnast. Tom Visser's fantastic lighting sculpts the stage design with an unstoppable and grandiose simplicity: heavy opera curtains perfectly in tune with the setting and an imposing chandelier descending from the flies. And, at the very back, four instrumentalists in tuxedos, like in the upscale clubs where partygoers come to get drunk on the decibels.
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