William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar is presented by Royal Ballet of Flanders for the first time in London at Sadler’s Wells, after receiving rapturous praise at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007.

Presented in three acts with no narrative, Impressing the Czar is an intricate and surreal meditation on dance, civilisation and the human spirit, by turns both bitingly funny and deeply touching.

In an inventory of references that spans the history of art and ballet since the Renaissance, Forsythe stimulates, demolishes and subsequently resurrects the dance pantheon in a whirl of theatrical imagination. Moments of opulent burlesque action are interwoven with a striking scene which features Forsythe’s world-famous in the middle, somewhat elevated.

Features sumptuous designs by Férial Münnich and Michael Simon, and music by Thom Willems, Leslie Stuck, Eva Crossman-Hecht and Ludwig van Beethoven.


These performances by Royal Ballet of Flanders are part of Focus on Forsythe 08/09


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