Season 2024: Études | The Australian Ballet

Harald Lander's Études comes to Sydney 3 - 18 May 2024 and Melbourne 2 - 9 October 2024 in a double bill with Stephanie Lake's Circle Electric. Discover more: bit.ly/3QfeNra Subscribe to our channel: bit.ly/3hBJ2WH
Études, French for ‘studies’, takes the dancer’s morning ritual of ballet class and transforms it for the stage. Designed to gradually warm up muscles and align the body for rehearsals and performance, the classical ballet class follows a standard order of exercises that start small and gradually get bigger and more complex. These same movements, even the smallest pliés and tendus, are the building blocks from which classical ballets are constructed. Études illuminates these classroom exercises, demonstrating how these simple steps can become a fabulous showpiece of physical art.
Choreographed by Harald Lander in 1948 for the Royal Danish Ballet, this one-act ballet is set to piano studies by Carl Czerny, arranged by Knudåge Riisager. Emulating the ballet studio experience, the dancers perform precise exercises at the barre, which become more expansive as they move into the centre, and develop into a grand finale of full-velocity movement in perfect synchronisation. Complemented by spectacular new costumes from Lise Lander, Études will transform you to the inner world of the dance studio with its beauty, grace and immaculate movement.