Pas de deux

I would compare the genesis of Pas de deux to a lizard’s tail growing back – except that here an entirely new body grows back onto the tail. Drawing on the classic four-part ballet form of the same name – Entrée, Adagio, Variations, and Coda – our two protagonists, solo violin and solo cello, whirl through the first three sections as the body that grows back onto the tail (the Coda): they spin, romp, and reel, caught in a dynamic discussion of positions and perspectives, ideas and dreams, until they finally sweep the whole orchestra along with them. As the culminating point, I paraphrase the final scene of my opera Adam und Eva: a proclamation of individual freedom, responsibility, and creativity, with the mantra “love, beauty, serenity, novelty, mischief, and mirth,” akin to a wild, unbridled dance. My working title, Eve and Adam’s dance fight at 288 beats per minute, points to the central importance of pulse as the driving force of this intense twelve-minute orchestral ballet. Flowing from an amplified double bass positioned at the center of the orchestral landscape, the omnipresent 288 bpm becomes the focal point of our rhythmic journey across the dance floor. Pas de deux is an interplay of two forces: Adam and Eve, you and I, them and us – back and forth, swaying and turning, pushing and pulling. It traces social interaction in its most fundamental and at the same time most joyful form: as dance, celebrated in all cultures throughout the world. The audience is invited to dance along – or, like a dancer stepping briefly out of the festivity, to let their gaze wander: sometimes focusing on individual couples, sometimes widening to the crowd, and thus experiencing the event as a large-scale sonic tableau.
Mike Svoboda, January 2026