Have a Carmen to its repertoire sounds obvious for the National Dance Company of Spain. But how to reinvent this story and this character without falling into the clichés of Spanish? Johan Inger, who nevertheless comes from Sweden, takes up the challenge brilliantly, offering with this Carmen a contemporary ballet with powerful and disturbing characters, assuming a strong narrative.

Carmen is a ballet created by Roland Petit and his company 'Les Ballets de Paris' at the Prince's Theatre in London on 21 February 1949, which has entered the repertory of ballet companies all around the world.

The ballet is in five scenes and represents a striking admixture of classical ballet, Spanish-style movement, mime, and freshly invented dramatic dance action. It opened "scandalously and brilliantly, with the fabulously sexy Zizi Jeanmaire in the title role" in London and has been regularly performed ever since. The original designs and costumes were by Antoni Clavé. The music is taken from the 1875 opera of the same name by Georges Bizet, arranged and re-orchestrated by Tommy Desserre. The scenario is based on the 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée. The principal roles were created for Petit's wife-to-be Zizi Jeanmaire (Carmen), Roland Petit (Don José) and Serge Perrault (Le Toréador). Over 5,000 performances of the work were given around the world over its first 50 years, and is considered to be the most frequently performed of ballets based on Bizet's opera.

Director: José Carlos Martínez (Artistic Director)
Cast: Johan Inger (Choreography), Rodion Shchedrin Georges Bizet (Music Director), National Dance Company of Spain