May 6th – 11th, 2025 Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva
June 5th – 7th, 2025 Kampnagel, Hamburg
January 14th – 17th, 2026 Maison de la Danse, Lyon
January 24th, 2026 Festspielhaus St. Pölten, St. Pölten
June 11th – 14th, 2026 De Singel, Antwerp
65 minutes
A Dream of Atmospheric Phenomena
With Mirage, Damien Jalet offers his very first creation for the Ballet du Grand Théâtre, where he has been an associate artist since 2022. Mirage also constitutes the fourth chapter of his collaboration with Japanese visual artist Kohei Nawa.
Inspired by the phenomenon of mirages and Fata Morgana – optical illusions linked to specific meteorological conditions, caused by light being distorted as it passes through different- temperature layers of air – Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa depict humanity wandering in a metaphorical desert in search of itself.
Through a series of unpredictable transformations inspired by different mythologies, climatology, botany and entomology, as well as Hayagawari – a Japanese kabuki theatre technique in which performers suddenly transform during a performance –, the piece peels back the performers, layer after layer, exploring an endless variety of physical and emotional states.
Sometimes evoking the spectres of a civilization at the edge of a dry well, sometimes crossed with the dazzling colours and sensuality of tropical nature, Mirage passes through like a moving, fluctuating, waking dream of atmospheric phenomena.