Intergalactic steampunk pirates, baroque music and hip hop dancing: a Review of Mourad Merzouki’s Folia

Wind whistles, as candles flicker, chandeliers hang above, the air is thick and sensual. All around is dark, blood-red velvet and gold. In the darkness, a huge floating lamp travels across the stage, a giant trampoline catapults the dancers in gravity-defying acrobatic maneuvers.  Folia is a  genre-bending piece that transcends distinctions and boundaries; ballet, contemporary, breakdance, Spanish, twirling dervishes fuse in a futuristic voyage. Baroque music and Vivaldi, meet electronic music and Neapolitan Tarantella.