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Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet’s Babel 7.16 unites 22 dancers from 15 nations in a performance that explores language and its relationship with nationhood, identity and religion. The ballet takes its title and tone from the apocalyptic Bible story in which God punitively divides his people into competing nations and tongues. The imposing three-dimensional structures of Antony Gormley’s stage design suggest a nameless intersection in a city near the borders of a no man’s land. The choreography elaborates the dynamic of connection and withdrawal, sustained by the installation of light-catching steel cubes. By inviting the “astonishingly multitalented cast of dancers” the two Belgian choreographers have put the concept of masses, of history and of territory in the Cour d’Honneur du Palais des Papes in Avignon, and thus created “the most fiercely resonant dance theatre of the decade” (The Guardian).
