“Ya-pa-pa, ta-ta-ta, um da da deeeee da da dum,” the choreographer Mthuthuzeli November sang to the tune of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” using the clicking sounds of his native isiXhosa language from southern Africa. The melody unspooled in a huge airy studio at the top of the Opera Bastille in Paris.
“Let’s have those legs higher,” he called out to a group of Paris Opera Ballet dancers. “A beautiful turned-out situation, please!”
November was rehearsing his ballet “Rhapsodies,” urging the 18 dancers to drop deeper to the ground, reach higher to the sky, turn with curving backs and stamp their feet with energy. “Make some noise with those pointe shoes!” he said as a line of women snaked in sideways, using their feet like little hammers on the floor.
At the end of the rehearsal, he gathered the dancers together in a circle, just as he had done at the start. “How are you feeling?” he asked. Like a sports team, they stood with interlinked arms, heads close together, talking quietly.
It was a week before the opening in early October of the Paris Opera Ballet’s program “Racines,” or “Roots,” a triple bill featuring “Rhapsodies,” Balanchine’s “Theme and Variations” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Corybantic Games.”
