Carmen

Veronica Paeper’s dramatic ballet classic, Carmen, returns to the Joburg Theatre stage as part of Joburg Ballet’s 25th Anniversary Season. This sizzling production brings one of the world’s most famous stories of passion, jealousy and fate vividly to life through dance.

Set to the unforgettable music of Georges Bizet, Carmen: The Ballet follows the fiery and free-spirited Carmen, whose irresistible allure draws the soldier Don José into a dangerous world of desire, obsession and betrayal. When Carmen’s affections turn to the glamorous bullfighter Escamillo, Don José’s love darkens into jealousy, setting the scene for a devastating final encounter.

A powerful fusion of classical ballet, theatrical storytelling and Spanish-inspired drama, Paeper’s Carmen is a thrilling portrait of a woman who refuses to be owned, and of the passions that consume those who try to possess her.

Joburg Ballet’s critically acclaimed Celestial Bodies returns with an extraordinary fusion of ballet, science, live music, narration and immersive visuals. Created by Joburg Ballet’s Associate Choreographer, award-winning choreographer Mario Gaglione in collaboration with Universe on Stage’s physicist Dr Luca Pontiggia and composer Yasheen Modi, the production transforms the story of the cosmos into a spectacular theatrical experience.

From the explosive birth of the universe, through the formation of atoms, stars and galaxies, to the emergence of life itself, Celestial Bodies takes audiences on a journey across billions of years. Gaglione’s choreography gives physical form to the forces and patterns of the cosmos, while Pontiggia’s narration provides the scientific framework and Modi’s original score, performed live on piano, gives the universe its musical pulse. Striking projections and lighting complete a world in which science becomes spectacle and the dancers themselves become celestial bodies in motion.