Shimmering & Beautiful

For me, music always comes first. A few years ago, I came across Ezio Bosso’s magnificent string music, and from the very first moment, I knew that a ballet was waiting to be created within it. The music has a shimmering quality—restless, driving forward, and at the same time deeply sensual. It immediately reminded me of the paintings by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt: the gilded surfaces and the way figures seem to emerge from a luminous field of gold. Although the work is by no means a direct depiction of Klimt’s art or life, their beauty inspired me to create the visual world from which the individual choreographies emerged.

The title, too, refers to this fleeting moment of the day: the hour just before dusk, when the light transforms everything into gold. I wanted the audience to immerse themselves in this hour and remain there for the duration of the piece.

In Within the Golden Hour, Schön explores beauty in the relationships between bodies in space, shaped by the emotional reactions that the music evokes in me. I start with the blank pages of a sketchbook and develop the dances as individual drawings: gestures, partner figures, a specific line of an arm. Inevitably, a world of figures emerges in which relationships become palpable—longing, separation, return. But the very beauty of abstract ballet lies in the fact even when themes are present, the story is left to the audience’s imagination. I love that freedom. Two people can sit side by side and experience completely different ballets: Some discover romance, others a ritual, and still others loneliness. For me, all of that is contained in this work, and on a good evening, I see something new in it every time.

Klimt’s “Golden Period”— The Kiss, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, or the large frieze paintings —immediately provided me with a visual language when I began working with Ezio’s music. The way he covers his canvases with gold, so that figures simultaneously disappear into and emerge from the field of light; the ornamentation, the intertwined bodies, the feeling of an embrace as something spiritual and sensual —all of this directly influenced my conception of how dancers move through space. The original lighting design bathes the stage in the same warm amber hue, and the costumes bring the gold and sand tones directly into the dancers’ bodies. Klimt’s influence is particularly evident in the duets, in which the partners entwine and unfurl —in forms that may recall the entwined lovers in his paintings. Klimt’s world gave me the freedom to create something uncompromisingly beautiful, sensual, and golden —qualities that are not always considered modern in contemporary ballet.

There are three duets that serve as the anchors of the piece. They form the emotional center of the world that Ezio’s music and my choreography bring to life, and each has its own atmosphere. One is heartfelt and intimate, almost private. Another carries a wilder, more playful energy. The third is the central pas de deux—that moment when the ballet pauses and looks inward. Group scenes surrounding these duets connect the individual sections: an opening featuring the entire ensemble, which sets the mood and draws the audience into the golden world, as well as a festive finale that brings everyone back together.

Ezio's music is perfect for dancing: rhythmic and driving on the surface, yet sensual and mystical at its core. It gave me everything I needed to discover the language and atmosphere of this work. The strings possess a genuine breath—long, singing lines over pulsating energy— and that gave the dancers an architecture into which they could immerse themselves. Perhaps, of all my abstract solo pieces, Within the Golden Hour comes closest to a narrative work, although there is no plot in the classical sense. The dancers emerge from a golden glow and convey a sense of community, social dance, perhaps even something spiritual.

At its core, however, this ballet simply aims to be beautiful and to invite the audience to to let go of any need for explanation—to surrender and immerse themselves in this golden world. Unfortunately, Ezio is no longer with us, and every revival of this work feels like an opportunity to honor him and his extraordinary musical universe.