Christian Dior loved dance. Maria Grazia Chiuri has also always cultivated a passion for the living art that, like fashion, sculpts and sublimates bodies.
Continuing this fascinating exploration, initiated with Nuit blanche in 2019, Dior is weaving an exceptional new collaboration with principal dancer Eleonora Abbagnato around the ballets Nuit Romaine and Nuit Dansée. This collaboration will be presented for the first time on stage at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, from April 26 to 28, 2024.
Revealed in 2022 in the form of a film choreographed and directed by Angelin Preljocaj, the show Nuit Romaine , also signed by Preljocaj, is set in the Palazzo Farnese – home of the French Embassy in Italy – one of the most beautiful monuments in Rome, a city so dear to the Creative Director of Dior women’s lines.
Through the spellbinding rooms of that legendary location, the dancers converse with Nox, goddess of the Night. Each space, magnified by a succession of dreamlike tableaus, is transformed into a narrative showcase for the virtuoso talents of this collective work.
Devised by choreographer Giorgio Mancini, Nuit Dansée in turn offers a captivating tribute to the excellence of the artists of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, in a poetic story that embodies the multiple languages of dance. A breathtaking creation, punctuated by the movements of the Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by American composer Philip Glass.
The fusion of Dior’s precious artisanship with that of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma ateliers, guided by Maria Grazia Chiuri, played a fundamental role in the designing of garments. Draping and hand pleating exemplify more than ever all their delicacy on capes and dresses. Other savoir-faire specific to the vocabulary of the House and its Creative Director includes encrusted lace, sumptuous beading and palettes of color that all shape the theatrical looks.
Costumes, painted with a trompe-l’œil effect, feature characters from the frescoes of the Carracci gallery, which adorn the vaulted ceiling. Like a foray of today’s world into the heart of this journey through time, jeans, T-shirts and sneakers put in an appearance. Clothing thus becomes a way of writing, linking past, present and future, while translating the powerfully alchemical cultural connections between France and Italy.
One of the missions of the French Embassy in Italy is to foster Franco-Italian artistic affinities by encouraging innovative projects, notably during the restoration of the Palazzo Farnese, which will be completed in 2025 – a year that will mark the 150 th anniversary of the Embassy’s move to this remarkable emblem of the Renaissance.
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