19BIS. Main dans la main
Green card given to Benjamin Millepied
This garden offers you a choreographic path to take hand in hand.
Everyone has to choose the colour they prefer: red or green, and walk on the paving stones of their chosen colour, without letting go of the other person’s hand (you can of course change hands or even hold both hands). The two-coloured paving stones are there to be shared. Visitors can, as they wish, decide if they want to walk on the stones at the same time as the other person, or one behind the other, or - why not - even try a simple ‘porté’. You will notice that sometimes you must be able to wait for one another, to bend, to stretch. A ‘pas de deux’ in the hands of the visitor: it is up to them to design, to compose their dance and to be the author of their choreography.
DESIGNER
Benjamin Millepied is the son of a dance teacher. After spending his childhood in Bordeaux and Senegal (his mother is an African dance teacher), he attended the Higher National Conservatory of Lyons from the very early age of 13. In 1992, he went to the School of American Ballet in New York and two years later he had his first dancing role in “2 & 3 Part Inventions” by Jérôme Robbins in the prestigious New York City Ballet. For many years he worked with Robbins and in 2001, he was appointed principal dancer of this institution. With this troupe he interprets the great ballets of George Balanchine and Jérôme Robbins, but also more contemporary choreographies, particularly those of Angelin Preljocaj. Since 1994, Benjamin Millepied has been the artistic director at Mark Morris’s Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn. While continuing to dance the major roles, he started a career as a choreographer in 2002. In 2009, he put on his first major choreography for the institution he is attached to, the New York City Ballet, with the creation of “Quasi una fantasia” based on Henryk Górecki’s string quartet.
