Photo gallery of Czech National Ballet’s triple bill: Rain, Vertigo and Cacti

The Czech National Ballet's triple bill Vertigo debuted in June and photographer Dasa Wharton was there to record it.

The contemporary programme featured Radu Poklitaru's Rain, Alexander Ekman's Cacti and the piece from which the evening drew its title, Mauro Bigonzetti's Vertigo.

Rain

by Radu Poklitaru

music by Bach, Jacques Brel together with folk songs

The young, gifted and renowned Moldavian contemporary ballet creator RADU POKLITARU possesses a highly idiomatic style, blending classical elements and everyday gesture, traits of modern and national dances.

His 2007 choreography Rain is a philosophical account of a story depicting the fates of people who at the same moment involuntarily enter a single space.“

Alina Nanu and Michal Štípa in Rain

Lenka Hrabovska, Jakub Rasek and company in Rain

Mathias Deneux and Andrea Kramešová in Rain

Czech National Ballet in Rain

Alexandra Pera and Guido Sarno in Rain

Alexandra Pera and Guido Sarno in Rain

Patrik Holeček and Louise Corpechot in Rain

Alina Nanu and Michal Stipa in Rain

Patrik Holeček in Rain

Vertigo

by Mauro Bigonzetti

music by Shostakovich

The Italian choreographer and currently Artistic Director of the Teatro La Scala ballet company, MAURO BIGONZETTI is a distinct contemporary dance figure, a creator of global renown.

The 2006 work Vertigo takes the form of a highly emotional duet, serving to express his personal visions regarding a relationship between two persons, a union in which the madness of love turns into physical vertigo.

Michal Štípa and Miho Ogimoto in Vertigo

Francesco Scarpato and Alina Nanu in Vertigo

Francesco Scarpato and Alina Nanu in Vertigo

Francesco Scarpato and Alina Nanu in Vertigo

Aya Watanabe and Giovanni Rotolo in Vertigo

Cacti

by Alexander Ekman

music by Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Andy Stein and Mahler

The world-famous Swedish choreographer and stage director ALEXANDER EKMAN started his career as a dancer with the Nederlands Dans Theater II and was subsequently engaged at the Cullberg Ballet. He has risen to become a creator whose choreographies are characterised by fast-developing timing, humour and compelling transformations.

In Cacti, dating from 2010 and one of Ekman's most acclaimed works, 16 dancers produce rhythms together with four musicians on the stage. With hyperbole and terse irony, it reveals the stereotypes of today's Western civilisation, particularly the contemporary conceptual art, gleefully parodying its strategies and excesses.

Matej Sust and Alice Petit

Czech National Ballet in Cacti

Czech National Ballet in Cacti

Czech National Ballet in Cacti

Ondrej Vinklat in Cacti

Matej Sust and Alice Petit

Matej Sust and Alice Petit

All photos by Dasa Wharton

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.