New Year’s Eve Concert - Invitation to Dance

Dance began with the first step. Long before humankind created musical instruments, stages and ballet schools, people already carried within themselves the rhythm of walking, breathing and gesture. Moving together made it possible to forge bonds, celebrate, tame fear, imitate nature, flirt, joke, and sometimes even express what could not be put into words. We know of no culture in which dance has been entirely absent. In many traditions, music, song and movement do not exist as separate realms but form a single organic whole. Dance may be ritual, celebration, contest, prayer, protest or healing. It is one of the oldest ways in which people experience their own bodies and the presence of another person. That is why – whenever we can – we should not deny ourselves the pleasure of dancing. We may dance ourselves, or simply listen to music that has preserved the memory of movement. The Warsaw Philharmonic will provide just such a New Year’s Eve concert. The programme unfolds as a colourful celebration of dance: from the grace of ballet to displays of virtuosity, from Viennese lightness to Latin American sensuality, from the elegance of the salon to the rhythmic vitality of the street. It brings together works from different periods and countries, reflecting a wide range of temperaments – mazur, tarantella, waltz, galop, tango, foxtrot, polka and danzón, alongside music inspired by dance in its many forms, culminating in Maurice Ravel’s celebrated Boléro . Bartłomiej Gembicki