Mirage - Damien Jalet

Contemporary dance piece by Damien Jalet and the Japanese visual artist Kohei Nawa, created for the Ballet of the Gran Teatro de Ginebra and presented in Spain at the Centro Danza Matadero in Madrid.

Mirage takes mirages as its starting point and, in particular, the fata morgana, an optical illusion that arises when light is refracted through layers of air at different temperatures. Drawing on this phenomenon, Damien Jalet and Kohei Nawa raise a constantly changing stage landscape in which perception plays a decisive role. It is Jalet's first creation for the Ballet of the Gran Teatro de Ginebra, directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and the fourth collaboration between Jalet and Nawa, after VESSEL, Mist and Planet[wanderer].

The stage is conceived as a metaphorical desert that humanity crosses in search of itself. The dancers confront different materials and forms while the space transforms in a dreamlike manner. The images alternate between what evokes a society at the limit of its survival and others that recall tropical vegetation, its chromatic exuberance and its sensuality.

With this production, Jalet continues an investigation into identity, perception and human nature, in which the body comes into contact with matter and with the processes of transformation of nature. The show is presented in Spain at the Centro Danza Matadero, a venue dedicated to dance in Madrid.