Too Good to be True

When we think of countries that have shaped the world of dance our mind will often drift to the United States, Russia, or Germany. But what of Luxembourg? Few nations have imprinted themselves so firmly within the world of contemporary folk-dance as the land-locked Duchy. There is something in the nation’s historical stature as Europe’s cultural powerhouse that seems so evident on stage. We have the sisters Josephine and Claudine Bal to thank primarily for this—a pair any dance scholar is familiar with. The late choreographers’ legendary works “Josiane, the Country Girl” and “Tusnelda, Queen of Turkestan” made ripples in the folk-dance movement of the 1960s. Their Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg still thrives, and makes its much anticipated return to London performing for one night only in the Place.

Performance

Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, performed by Louis Chevalier

Place

The Place, London, UK, April, 2026

Words

Eoin Fenton

Louis Chevalier as Mr. Chevalier. Photograph by Sven Becker

The Ballet National Folklorique has long considered London to be its second home. This is, after all, where the Bal sisters temporarily housed the company after their studios in Brussels flooded. It is also where the company’s famous “Pigeon Dance” was born. Inspired by the city’s high population of the familiar bird and the “horse like movements of the Graham technique practiced in the Place.” Executive director Simone Mousset, in her Chanel-ish get up is more than happy to wax lyrical about the company’s new director, one Mr. Chevalier, before his much anticipated solo performance. The programme notes boast that he was “one of the top five most interviewed ballet directors of 2025.”

What makes tonight so exciting is not just the anniversary celebration, nor the chance to see Chevalier inhabit these legendary dances from the company's repertoire. It’s the fact that the whole thing is entirely made up. The Bal sisters did not exist, the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg certainly doesn’t, and Mr. Chevalier is in fact a character created by Mousset for the French dancer Louis Chevalier. It’s all been a set up, and we are the fools for having bought a ticket. It is part of an ongoing project exploring folklore, both real and imagined, and the soft power of dance. Mousset’s deception has already toured across Europe to both bafflement and delight.

Louis Chevalier as Mr. Chevalier. Photograph by Sven Becker

Prior to the show the VIP area for friends of the ballet and the Luxembourgish embassy remains empty. Photos of the company in performance as a flock of pigeons, as well as pamphlets on the history of the Bal sisters and their ballet, are scattered around the foyer. As Mr. Chevalier, an eccentric figure to put it mildly, graces us with his presence he tells us of just how important the ballet is to the national interests of Luxembourg. He sheds off his silk scarf and teeny tiny sunglasses and begins the retrospective through the company’s repertoire with his rendition of the “Pigeon Dance.” The choreography is stilted and derivative, imagine Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake” spat out by Merce Cunningham on a bad day, but executed with total seriousness.

What makes the whole piece work is the uninhibited gall of those involved to so blatantly act as if what they are doing is genuine. They even roped in Eddie Nixon, artistic director of the Place, to introduce the company. Chevalier possesses all the airs and notions of a wanky director as he waffles on about how the prestige and power of the company is a source of inspiration to the Minister of Defence. But as he tries to involve the crowd through a spontaneous performance of “The Dance of the Grass and the Flowers” he begins to come off more as a man child than an enfant terrible — he does not believe that the mostly Anglo-Saxon crowd are capable of “reaching for the Luxembourgish skies” and meaning it.

The Great Mr. Chevalier. Photograph by Lara Andreolli

The megalomaniacal antics of Mr. Chevalier may seem overwrought to some, but his tantrums would not be out of place among the leadership of some of the world’s foremost ballet companies. There is also something political in his ego too, especially for our times, “could the director of this company be weak?” he asks semi-nude and panting after a creative outburst that saw him strop around the stage. The ever elegant Mousset, sat on the sidelines, curdles the further into the chaos we go. She is often gesturing to stage hands to try and do something or keeps out of Chevalier’s destructive path. The pair are strong but the impact starts to wear thin as the piece goes on. While the sardonic antics are lapped up by a public so culturally literate in sarcasm, the work begins to play out like an overly long Monty Python sketch once Chevalier whips out a guitar—he’s also a rock musician if you didn't know.

While pacing is an issue, the evening still packs a lot of laughs out of its sheer absurdity. As an experiment the piece finds more success, particularly as Mousset discloses in a post-show talk the many responses she has encountered with the work across various countries and festivals, particularly for audiences who do not realise that it is all a farce. We learn that this is the first time the cast have dropped their personas after the show. As it turns out, the Ballet National Folklorique has grown a life of its own and has even received very real funding from the Luxembourgish government. While Luxembourg may not have the academies of Russia, the innovators of America, or the theorists of Germany, it now has this company. Mousset, to the truest essence of the phrase, faked it until she made it. I like to believe the Bal sisters would be proud.

Eoin Fenton

Eoin (they/he) is a dance maker and writer based in Cork (Rep. of Ireland), and London (UK). They have danced across Ireland and London in venues including The Place, Project Arts Centre Dublin and Galway Cathedral. Eoin graduated with a BA in Choreography from Middlesex University in 2024 and began writing as part of the Resolution Reviews programme. They are a regular contributor to A Young(ish) Perspective.

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