Innsbruck Winter Dance Festival 2025: Boléro | Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana is a scenic cantata composed by Carl Orff in 1937. It is based on a collection of medieval songs from the 13th century, written by wandering clerics and students. Inspired by this, Ilya Jivoy and his ballet company transport the audience into a world in which frenetic rhythms, overwhelming emotions and the universal themes of love, fate and human nature are hypnotically interwoven on stage.
The company that will masterfully present Carmina Burana is called The Dance Factory (la Factoria de Dansa) and is a project of the Factoria Cultural from Terrassa, Catalonia (Spain).
Maurice Ravel's Boléro is a famous orchestral work that was premiered in Paris in 1928. It is characterised by its simple, repetitive melody and a steady, even rhythm that builds from a quiet beginning to a powerful climax. The piece consists of only one theme, which is repeated over and over again, while the instrumentation gradually varies and the musicians become continuously louder and more powerful.
Enrique Gasa Valga's choreographic staging of this composition in Crescendo pays tribute to this dynamic in a touching way. The intensification of the sound to the extreme is intended to celebrate the miracle of life.