Dance from France

Ballet Preljocaj Tonight, 8 p.m. Byham Theater $7 discount with student ID

(412) 471-6930… Ballet Preljocaj Tonight, 8 p.m. Byham Theater $7 discount with student ID

(412) 471-6930

Their movements are pronounced with a French accent: sensual, intimate, chic and innovative. Ballet Preljocaj is bound to raise not only eyebrows, but Adrenalin levels as well.

Choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, of Ballet Preljocaj will present renewed works alongside original classics. The company is known for its work with multimedia, strange and compulsive sounds and sexual innuendos.

Dances incorporate video projection and work closely with the music that, in some places, is mere sounds such as engines of a helicopter or tempered beats of string instruments. The dancers start and stop their movements with the meticulous violin tones and rhythms. Preljocaj uses Stravinsky’s amplified and robust musical scores to arouse and portray a list of emotions such as desire and panic.

Preljocaj founded his ballet company in 1996 at the Aix-en-Provence National Choreography Centre. His company now consists of 22 dancers who perform his more than 20 works of choreography. His choreography has not only won awards such as the Bessie Award in 1997, but his primal impulses, his desire to dance within the score, and to be instinctive, has caused controversy as it once did in 1913 when presented as a premiere in Paris. His work has very little restrain, the dancers have nothing to hide as they glide across the stage, even at times, wearing nothing but the skin they dance in.

Preljocaj’s latest pieces are “Helikopter” and “Le Sacre de Printemps,” both promised to raise discussion since the first contains redundant helicopter engine beats, video projection and music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, which is a compilation of redundant helicopter engine beats and violins. The latter contains nudity.

Prior to Ballet Preljocaj’s appearance, another dance group from France made its debut at the Byham. On Wednesday evening, Ballet Biarritz and choreographer Thierry Malandain presented French, fantasy-filled dances with early 1900 historical that have become progressive and modernized pieces, noteworthy of their musical scores by Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel and Van Weber as sources of inspiration.

Dancers in both companies have vast backgrounds with even broader training and experience in the dance art form. Ballet Biarritz presented a diverse presentation of dance, but its work and its commonalities as a group is what makes Ballet Preljocaj outstanding.