High Heels Too

Choreographer: Benoît Lachambre

French Canadian choreographer Benoît Lachambre created his second piece for the Cullberg Ballet dancers, which premiered at Hörsalen Kulturhuset, Stockholm in March of 2013. Lachambre was inspired to create High Heels Too after choreographing a short solo in high heels for a burlesque club in Montréal.

For this work Lachambre collaborated with costume designer Alexandra Bertaut and visual artist Laurent Goldring both based in Paris. The music was composed by the New York-based Hahn Rowe. High Heels Too combines the idiosyncratic movement language of Lachambre with the outstanding skill and stage presence of the Cullberg Ballet dancers.

In his first work for the company, JJ’s Voices (2009), Lachambre was inspired by the music of Janis Joplin. The dancers bore out her songs through their bodies. JJ’s Voices spent three years in the Cullberg’ repertoire as a great success on the international touring circuit.

Duration approximately 60 minutes, no intermission.

Press cuttings

“The music is crucial and truly outstanding. If there is a story in High heels too, it is told by Hahn Rowe’s exquisite, sophisticated live-electronica, intimately influencing and being influenced by everything taking place on stage. Beginning with hardly audible crackles and glitches, continuing with repeating synthetical bird song and icing bows. Hahn Rowe creates a room within the room, deepening and reinforcing the totality. High heels is hardly a dance blockbuster, but one of the most poetic, thought provoking works I have ever seen with Cullberg Ballet. Narrow, yet not difficult. Definitely sublime. Absolutely stunning.”
– Örjan Abrahamsson, Dagens Nyheter, 3 March 2013

“High heels too is a perspective play with body, gender, room, tension and shifts between the artificial and the intuitive – also emphasized by Hahn Rowe’s subtle composition of sound and electronic beats. The piece moves from surface to interior with an accelerating pulse. With is sculptural qualities the piece could also be presented in an art context – the dancing doesn’t really begin until the end. The movements are transmitted from the spine and outwards. That is the core of Lachambre’s movement philosophy. The outwork helps us see; the visual and auditory totality captures the interest almost all the way. It could have been banal but is rather suggestive and beautiful.”
– Anna Ångström, Svenska Dagbladet 3 March 2013

“High heels too is a poetic play with the interaction between the body and everything that contributes to change its original shape, or if preferred, a study in man’s obsession of changing identity.”
– Lena Andrén, Nummer.se, 2 March 2013

Music: Hahn Rowe

Light Design: Fredrik Rydehäll

Costume: Alexandra Bertaut

Choreography Assistant: Hanna Hedman, Lisa Drake

Video: Laurent Goldring

Installation Concept: Laurent Goldring, Alexandra Bertaut

Premiere: 2013

Duration: 60 min