The artistic director, Solange Melo, announced that this year’s edition of the event will pay tribute to the memory of the former Ballet Nights in Seteais while emphasizing contemporary choreographic creations. The performances will take place on July 5 and 6 at 7:00 PM in the gardens of the Palace of Seteais.
The London City Ballet, hailed as one of Europe’s finest companies in 2024 by Dance Europe, will perform on Saturday and Sunday. Their program includes the world premiere of ‘Soft Shore’ by Florent Melac, exploring the intricacies of human relationships.
During the second weekend, the National Ballet Company (Companhia Nacional de Bailado) will return to Seteais for the first time since 2002. They will present a double program featuring the world premiere of ‘Four Corners in a Sonnet’ by Fernando Duarte, which merges literary tradition with contemporary choreography, celebrating the 500th anniversary of poet Luís de Camões.
The opening weekend features additional pieces by the London City Ballet such as ‘Larina Waltz’ choreographed by Ashley Page to Tchaikovsky’s music, ‘Consolations & Liebestraum’ by Liam Scarlett focusing on emotional cycles and memories of past love, and ‘Haeiff Divertimento’ by George Balanchine (1904-1983), a European premiere reviving a 1947 piece by the choreographer.
A masterclass for young dance students will be held on Saturday at 11:00 AM, led by the London City Ballet’s artistic director, Christopher Marney, at the Olga Cadaval Cultural Center rehearsal room.
Christopher Marney, a choreographer and teacher, has been the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet Studio Company in Chicago and the Central School of Ballet in London, where he commissioned works from choreographers such as Balanchine, MacMillan, Scarlett, and Bourne.
On July 5 and 6, during the final weekend of the Ballet Cycle in Seteais, Fernando Duarte’s new piece will blend various languages to bring to life the poetry of Luís de Camões’ epic ‘The Lusiads’, aiming to highlight the legacy and contemporary relevance of the 16th-century poet.
The weekend program concludes with Balanchine’s ‘Stravinsky Violin Concerto,’ recognized as one of his masterpieces, which highlights the interplay between music and movement to emphasize the modernity of the neoclassical style.
Solange Melo, a dancer, teacher, and artistic curator, explains in the presentation note that this year’s program aims to “create dialogue between historical repertoires and new languages” to “reaffirm the uniqueness of the setting and the relevance” of Ballet in Seteais, which dates back to the 1980s.
The Ballet Cycle in Seteais, organized by the Municipality of Sintra, ran from 1984 until 2001 under the artistic direction of Armando Jorge and returned in 2021 with artistic directors Solange Melo and Fernando Duarte until 2024.
