The IXth Symphony

This transposition of Beethoven’s work into choreography has no vision, goal or claim other than the music which carries and nurtures it, and is the only reason for its existence. Here, dance merely follows the slow progression of the composer who moves from anxiety to joy, from darkness to light.  This is not a question of a ballet, in the sense we know it, tacked onto a score which is one of the pinnacles of music, but of a profound human interest in a work which is part of mankind, and which here is not only played and sung, but danced, in the same way as greek tragedy, or any early collective religious event.

Source: Maurice Béjart