October 30, 2021 | 12:00PM
Max Palevsky Cinema (Doc Films) Ida Noyes Hall 1212 E 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637
Free and open to the public. No reservation is required but capacity is limited to 250 (first come, first served). Proof a COVID-19 vaccine and mask are required to attend.
On October 30, the Black Baroque Project at the University of Chicago will present a screening of the landmark Opera-Ballet Les Indes galantes (2019), followed by a live Q&A with choreographer Bintou Dembélé and moderated by Noémie Ndiaye (University of Chicago Department of English) and Martha Feldman (University of Chicago Department of Music).
On the stage of Paris's legendary Opera Bastille, choreographer Bintou Dembélé brings together 30 dancers to reprise, remix, and subvert Jean-Philippe Rameau's baroque opera Les Indes galantes (1735). A masterpiece of the Enlightenment, Les Indes galantes offers sparkling entertainment. Yet Rameau’s first opera‑ballet also testifies to the ambiguous view held by Europeans concerning other peoples: Turks, Incas, Persians, “Savages”… In 2017, film director Clément Cogitore made an explosive and critically acclaimed film adaptation of an excerpt from Les Indes galantes in collaboration with Krump dancers. In 2019, with choreographer Bintou Dembélé, he takes up Rameau’s box of delights in its entirety to set it once more in an urban and political space and explore its frontiers.
Learn more on the French Culture website.