Geneva attracts more dance. (News).

In February, Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, founder and artistic director of the Tokyo-based company KARAS, was in Geneva rehearsing Para-Dice, the piece he's created for the Geneva Ballet, resident company of this Swiss city's Grand Theatre. Commissioning an artist of Teshigawara's stature (he's choreographed for various European companies, including the Nederlands Dans Theater and Frankfurt Ballet) is just one manifestation of the new policy of the Grand Theatre, working in tandem with Geneva's cultural department, to raise the profile of the company--and the profile of Geneva as a dance city.

Teshigawara, 49, head shaven, sat with the imperturbable calm of a Zen monk in rehearsals. He manifested gentle humor and treated the dancers with respect, apologizing for changes he made as each segment was repeated. The ballet is about universal energies, essential dualities, and interactions. German sound designer Willi Bopp combines glass harmonica, strings, and electronic music that fills the room, then recedes like waves. "There are no sets, no props," Teshigawara said. "The lighting changes a lot, with the movement, dark to bright"--like the black and sun-yellow costumes he also designed--"but everything is always flowing." He said there is no conflict in the twenty-five-minute piece: "At the end, the dancers seem to melt into time, melt into space--into the air." Paradise? Well, not quite. According to Teshigawara, "Para-Dice is about existence, very beautiful, but also uncertain, fragile, chancy--like the throw of the dice."

Para-Dice premiered in March and shared the bill with two other short ballets. Giorgio Mancini, who has been the company's artistic director since July 2001, premiered Words No Longer Heard. The third ballet was George Balanchine's classic Concerto Barocco--a reminder that Balanchine, who was the troupe's artistic consultant from 1969 to 1978, is part of the heritage of this first-rate company.

This season marked the inauguration of Geneva's new commitment to dance. For the first time, dance enthusiasts could purchase a subscription from the Grand Theatre featuring two new productions choreographed by world-class artists and two prestigious visiting companies: one was Trisha Brown Dance Company, and the other the Ballet de l'Opera National de Lyon performing Maguy Marin's version of Cinderella. (Three new productions and three visiting groups are on the program in 2003-2004.) A children's series, although not new, is being expanded. And the Italian-born Mancini, a former dancer with Bejart in Brussels and Lausanne, is also part of the raised profile. He's working with his twenty-seven dancers to hone their distinctive ensemble style.

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