‘Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon’, a joint production by three international dance companies, celebrates the legacy and feistiness of the woman who dared to shake up fashion
Say the word Chanel and, for many, the first thing to come to mind is the iconic No 5 perfume bottle or a quilted tweed jacket. French style icon Coco Chanel redefined women’s fashion after the First World War, with a casual, simple elegance that still dazzles the world long after her death. But to Belgian Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Chanel’s legacy goes far beyond bags, lipsticks and suits. “She’s much more than that, and that’s what I want to give back to her through my production,” she says.
Celebrating the life of the legend and the independent woman who has inspired generations, Ochoa’s latest work Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon, a joint production between the Hong Kong Ballet, Atlanta Ballet and Queensland Ballet, will have its world premiere in Hong Kong this month, followed by performances in the US next year. The two-act show will be largely themed around love, work and fashion—the three most important elements of Chanel’s life. The first act will shed light on her formative years, while the second will look at her fashion empire and highlight some of her most iconic designs.
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Other companies have portrayed Chanel’s life in dance—take, for example, Yuri Possokhov’s 2019 piece Gabrielle Chanel with the Bolshoi Ballet—but they have tended to take a more straightforward approach; Ochoa’s work is more conceptual. Dressed in black, the principal dancer will represent “a shadow, which is Chanel’s conscience and karma”, focusing the narrative on Chanel’s metamorphosis from an orphan girl with a humble background into a formidable businesswoman, rather than just the high points of her life. The production doesn’t sugarcoat the truth about Chanel, though. “Sometimes business is ugly. She had to play the game,” Ochoa says of the designer’s less commendable actions. “Was she going for the money or the ethical side? Her [ambition] might have pushed her to certain directions.
Chanel was famously and controversially affiliated with the Nazis; she had a long-term relationship with a high-ranking Nazi officer, and was viewed as holding antisemitic views, widely linked to her dislike of Jewish businessman Pierre Wertheimer, who invested in and dictated the business direction of her perfume line in exchange for the lion’s share of profits. But Ochoa has a different view: “As a woman, she felt like she was being mistreated [in her business interests]. I don’t think she was an antisemite. She only wanted to be independent as a woman and take ownership of what she created.”
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