Dark Elegies

Abstract

The "story" in Dark Elegies is really a series of scenes in which we see the varied reactions of a small community when their children die without reason. The songs (in German) are "Kindertotenlieder" or songs on the death of children (literally ChildDeathSongs). In the work, Tudor is coming from a frame of emotional reference in which the ballet choreography often resembles modern dance and German folk dances, moving weight into the earth. Dark Elegies does not use "off-the-shelf" (so to speak) ballet technique, it invented new and still distinct, ways of moving in ballet. This, from a perspective in time when each new piece was also a new dance invention.