Jiri Kylian's inspiration for this piece came from a small sculpture by Alberto Giacometti: a simple, formless board game with small wood shavings and indentations, as well as two pieces of wood resembling human beings. The highly dynamic tension that this work of art produced in the choreographer and a feeling of unavoidability determine the character of the ballet "No More Play". The viewer sees himself as a participant in a rough, tough game whose rules were forgotten long ago. Only gradually and one by one does he discover the forgotten rules, but always when it is already too late, when he has already fallen into the trap. The music is such an important foundation for the choreographer's work that the serial, aleatoric choreography of the piece "No More Play" immediately makes it clear that the music could not have been written by anyone else than Anton Webern. Music and movement fuse to a unity so fitting that one would have a hard time separating the individual components again. The Rococo costumes appear here only fleetingly, as if they did not want to distract attention from the stage lighting, which can hardly be called more than fragmentary. It underscores the asymmetric choreography of two groups of dancers in a special way: one pair and a group of three feel their way into the fragmentary musical structure of Anton Webern's Five Movements fot String Quartet. The dancers smoothly and precisely meliorate the outbreaks of the score, especially when the male dancers lift the female dancers in slow-motion. The seemingly frozen motions extend to the point where the viewer expects the dancers to lose their balance. Their intensity corresponds to the musical structure of the quartet, in which the composer combines the classic imitative arts like variation and counterpoint with his own serial technique of composition. Filling the rear end of the stage as well with dancing action is another of the central ideas in the artistic work of Jiri Kylian. This does not remain a mere gimmick, but always clearly corresponds to the theme of the respective choreography, arising as if naturally from it, as well as from the chosen costumes and sets (in this case both designed by the choreographer himself) and from the lighting. In "No More Play", the dancers cross the stage background and disappear in the darkness, out of which the stage set elements can barely be made out when the figures pass by them. The lighting creates an effect like the figures on a frieze, a relief against whose background a pas de deux is simultaneously carried out by a pair creeping on the floor.

Source : Arthaus musik

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The world-renowned choreographer Jiří Kylián (Czechoslovakia, 1947) has been artistic director and house choreographer for of Nederlands Dans Theater for more than thirty years. Throughout his career Kylián created 75 choreographies for NDT. The piece  "Mémoires d’Oubliettes" marked the end of his work for NDT in 2009. Since then his creative focus has shifted to more small scale projects. Kylián created various other pieces for companies worldwide such as the Stuttgart Ballet, the Paris Opéra, the Munich Bayerisches Staatsballett and the Tokyo Ballet. Kylián received many prestigious, international awards and honours.

Jiří Kylián started his dance career at the age of nine, at the School of the National Ballet in Prague. In 1962 he was accepted as a student at the Prague Conservatory. He left Prague in 1967 when he received a scholarship for the Royal Ballet School in London.  Then he left for the Stuttgart Ballet led by John Cranko, where he made his debut as a choreographer with Paradox for the Noverre Gesellschaft. After having created three ballets for NDT ("Viewers", "Stoolgame" and "La Cathédrale Engloutie"), he became the company’s artistic director in 1975 together with Hans Knill. During the 1978 Charleston Festival in the United States  Kylián put NDT on the international map with Sinfonietta (Leoš Janácek). That year he and Carel Birnie founded NDT 2, which was – and is – meant to offer young dancers the opportunity to develop their skills and talents. In 1991 he initiated NDT 3; a company that created opportunities for ‘older’ dancers. NDT stood out as the first company worldwide that showed the three dimensions of a dancer´s life. After an extraordinary record of service Kylián handed over the artistic leadership in 1999, but remained associated to the dance company as house choreographer until 2009.

Source: Nederlands Dance Theater 's website

More information: ndt.nl/en/home.html

Artistic direction: Jiří Kylián

Creation: 1978

Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) is one of the most productive dance companies in the Netherlands, if not in the world. With six programs and nine world premieres in season 2015/2016, NDT shows an unprecedented number of new ballets. Artistic director Paul Lightfoot has deliberately chosen only a few revivals: "It's about artistic creation, not just choreography."
The company has always been ambitious and idiosyncratic. Since its founding in 1959 by Benjamin Harkarvy, Aart Verstegen and Carel Birnie in cooperation with eighteen dancers from Het Nationaal Ballet (The National Ballet), NDT has tried to pave its own way in the modern dance field. Glen Tetley and Hans van Manen prominently imprinted NDT with an avant-garde aesthetic and their nonconformist, progressive productions put the company on the national and international map.
Jiri Kylián added his own vision in the 80s and 90s, giving the company a distinct choreographic profile. Kylián was also a pioneer in focussing on talent development within the company, giving young professionals from within as well as outside the organization a chance to becomes dancers and choreographers of international repute. Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, both the house choreographers of NDT since 2002, are the primary examples of this.
Since 2011, Lightfoot also serves as the Artistic Director of the overall company whereas León has been its artistic advisor since 2012. León & Lightfoot have been working together since 1989 and earlier this season celebrated their 25th anniversary with new works and revivals of « Sad Case » and « Subject to Change » (NDT 2) and  « Sehnsucht and Schmetterling » (NDT 1).
The idea to divide the company into one that focuses on talent development (NDT 2) and one where the more mature dancers (NDT 1) can fully grow into their artistic personalities, was developed thirty years ago. Dancers of NDT 2 join NDT 1 under the condition that they meet the expectations of the artistic direction. The high requirements that must be met result not only in appreciation by the public, but also in international dance prices. Dancer and choreographer Medhi Walerski won the prestigious 2013 Swan for 'most impressive dance performance'. "With his impressive appearance and theatre sensitivity his presence never loses meaning and he holds the audience’s attention by continuously fixating them. Walerski is a master magician in time and space " according to the VSCD jury report.
The level is not only high for the dancers, but also for the (guest) choreographers. NDT is one of few production houses that offers the stage and the opportunity to many external choreographers to create work with a virtuoso dance company. It is therefore not surprising that international, award-winning Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter as well as Marco Goecke are regular guests at NDT. Their presence leads to creative cross-pollination of world class and unforgettable ballets. Masterpieces like « Bella Figura », « Symphony in D » and « Déjà Vu » are among the classics of the company. A part of the collection is even included in the archive of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, a unique phenomenon in the Dutch ballet world.

Source : Nederlands Dans Theater 's website

More information : ndt.nl/home.html

Arthaus Musik is a label for classical music on DVD and Blu-ray. The company belongs to Studio Halle GmbH and maintains the subsidiary Monarda Arts.
Arthaus Musik GmbH was founded in Munich in March 2000 and has been based in Halle (Saale) since 2007. The  label has been publishing records of operas, ballets, classical  concerts, jazz, theater productions and selected documentaries on music  and the arts for thirteen years. Since then, over 700 titles have been released on DVD and Blu-ray with up to 100 releases per year.
Among  the publications are recordings with artists such as Plácido Domingo,  Cecilia Bartoli, Luciano Pavarotti, Maria Callas, Jonas Kaufmann,  Burkard Schliessmann and conductors, such as Carlos Kleiber, Claudio  Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, Pierre Boulez and Zubin  Mehta. The  recordings come from opera houses such as La Scala, the Vienna State  Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Opéra National de Paris  and the Zurich Opera House.

More information: arthaus-musik.com/