At the Opéra Bastille from October 6 to November 10, 2025, Racines takes the stage, a triptych that brings together three different choreographic worlds, all connected by the thread of cultural and artistic roots. The program opens with George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, created in 1947 to Tchaikovsky’s music, a declaration of love for the Russian academic tradition and the formal rigor that shaped the Georgian choreographer. In sharp contrast, Christopher Wheeldon presents Corybantic Games, inspired by ancient Greece and the rhythms of Leonard Bernstein, a collective dance of energy and vitality that unfolds like a ritual of bodies in motion. Closing the evening is Mthuthuzeli November’s Rhapsodies, which blends classical language with African roots and a contemporary urban pulse, set to George Gershwin’s music, evoking shifting identities and cultural crossovers. Racines is not just a mixed bill but a journey through eras and styles, from Balanchine’s neoclassical purity to Wheeldon’s theatrical dynamism, and finally to November’s multicultural vitality. With two intermissions and a total running time of over two hours, the production marks the opening program of the Paris Opera Ballet’s 2025-2026 season, launching a year devoted to dialogue between memory and contemporaneity.
