The Great Chevalier and The Pigeon Dance

The renowned Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg returns to KLAP Maison pour la danse to mark the 50th anniversary of The Pigeon Dance, the legendary ballet by Josiane Bal, the company’s former director, inspired by the iconic folk dance of the same name. This original dance remains at the heart of the indelible ties between KLAP and the Ballet National. The evening celebrates this unique lineage in two parts.

In the first part, M. Chevalier, the enfant terrible of contemporary folk dance and the BNFL’s new artistic director, returns himself to this historic stage to pay tribute to the famous Danse du Pigeon that inspired this legendary ballet, and to the powerful ties between KLAP and the Ballet. In a rare, intimate, and emotionally intense performance, the ambitious director and choreographer brings several emblematic classics from the repertoire to life. This exceptional encounter is followed by a signing session with M. Chevalier.

The ballet itself is presented in the second part. Created in 1976 by Josiane Bal while she was directing the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, The Pigeon Dance was an operatic ballet centered on the fantasies of a pigeon dreaming of being crushed by a goat. Josiane Bal’s legacy remains inseparable from the tragic circumstances of her death during the premiere, after which the ballet was lost and survived only through disputed memories.

Today, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of The Pigeon Dance and in commemoration of Madame Bal’s death, Simone Mousset, the company’s executive director, returns to the stage to embody a personal and intimate version of this vanished jewel of Luxembourg folklore. Set to a new score by French composer Nosfell, The Pigeon Dance returns as a feminist remnant of Luxembourg folklore, resonating across generations of women artists whose creative stories have been restricted, distorted, or left unfinished.