Following the successful world premiere of Trisha Brown’s Pygmalion (2010), a rendition of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s one-act opera based on the mythical story of love and magic as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Ms. Brown has developed the dance sections from this evening-length work for touring in the U.S. and internationally beginning in spring 2011. This “suite de danse” as it would have been called in Rameau’s time, is entitled Les Yeux et l'âme. French for "the eyes and the soul," those words are a variation of what the statue says to Pygmalion when she comes to life: “I can see in your eyes what I feel in my soul;” the title encapsules the physical and spiritual dimensions of Ms. Brown’s choreography.
Les Yeux et l'âme was funded by New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project (NDP) with generous support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation.