Original production created at the Gare du Midi in Biarritz on 18 and 19 June, 2003.
In 1801, after the success of his first symphony with the Viennese audiences, Ludwig Van Beethoven received an invitation from the Vienna choreographer Salvatore Vigano to compose the music for a ballet: The Creatures of Prometheus. They chose a theme inspired by Greece and did not consider Prometheus only as the titan who took the fire away from the Gods to give it to Men. He also was the father of a new humanity that lifts them through art and knowledge. The piece was created in 1801 at the Burg Theater in Vienna, to honour the empress Marie-Thérèse, a protector of the arts.
The piece by Beethoven was used also later as a set for ballet performances. The version of choreographer Thierry Malandin instead of using the Promethean myth of the creation of Man, takes the tale of Genesis about the God of the ancient testament giving his creatures the holy fire of Dance.
There were many nights, many mornings, then one day the first man was born a dancer. Alone, he would spin, with his arms extended towards no one else, and then he was giventhe first woman as a partner. Dancing together was nicer, but he soon wished to create new movements. Until the moment when the temptation of a more liberated dance blew in the veils of an enchanting almah. As she turned into a flower, a butterfly, a flame or a storm, Loie Fuller fascinated them with her Serpentine Dance. Joining her, other artists from the New World brought about new aspirations: Later, there was Doris Humphrey, for whom falling and starting again were the very essence of movement. A new horizon lay ahead of Ballet. Adam and Eve went towards it, leaving Paradise behind. On their way, they learned that they would, from then on, dance by the sweat of their brow and that pain would be part of the creation of new steps that is when Caïn pounced on Abel.
Les Creatures
