Snow White & the Mirror

A Fresh Interpretation of Snow White

The visionary choreographer Etienne Béchard skillfully combines classical and contemporary dance to offer a fresh interpretation of Snow White, the famous Brothers Grimm tale. At the heart of his work lie the same universal questions: truth, illusion, and the search for identity. The Mirror, an omnipresent character, plays the dual role of observer and narrator, reflecting the tensions between authenticity and appearance. The Queen, trapped in her obsession with beauty and power, struggles against the passage of time and her own anxieties, while Snow White, exiled, embarks on an initiatory journey. Guided by seven mysterious figures in an enchanted forest, she gradually discovers the path to acceptance and resilience.

The music, an anchoring force, enhances this new narrative with emblematic works by Bach, Saint-Saëns, and Dukas. Bach’s luminous Violin Concerto in E Major and Saint-Saëns’s haunting Danse macabre weave a sonic tapestry alternating between light and darkness, highlighting moments of dramatic intensity.

With this creation, Etienne Béchard transcends the limits of the classic tale to offer a timeless reflection on the fragility and strength of the human soul.

Prologue

In the beginning, there is only a reflection.
The Mirror, created to reveal what is hidden, questions its very nature.
Is it truth? Illusion? Or mere logical consciousness?
Around it, artificial intelligences unfold like shards of glass, unstable calculations, uncertain doubles.
And within this web of reflections, something persists.
An echo.
An image.
A name.

Then, slowly, the story takes shape. From the depths of memory rises a fragile, ancient, almost forgotten phrase: once upon a time.

Act I

Snow White sees again the child she once was, frozen under the icy gaze of her stepmother, the Queen. That gaze, never softened by tenderness nor warmed by the slightest affection, already outlines the contours of a broken destiny.

Now, in the courtyard of the kingdom, Snow White is loved and respected. But harmony wavers when the Queen appears, escorted by Chavalant –who embodies both the hunter and the prince charming– and her armies of artificial intelligences. Their eyes meet. Snow White’s radiant beauty becomes unbearable to the Queen, whose inner image slowly begins to fracture. Envy seeps into the foundations of power, and the entire kingdom grinds to a halt.

Obsessed with the passage of time, the Queen turns to the Mirror. The dialogue she initiates is nothing but a reflection of her deepest fears: aging, vanishing, losing her radiance. Gradually, these anxieties take the form of nightmares; she sees Snow White multiplying, consuming her, replacing her. Trapped in her own logic, she orders her daughter’s exile. Snow White flees through the forest, hunted by Chavalant.

Act II

Exhausted, Snow White wanders deep into the dark, mysterious forest. Chavalant finds her, determined to end her life. At first hard and brutal, he relents under her gaze. For the first time, he doubts—and yields.

Meanwhile, obsessed with the idea of escaping death, the Queen merges with the machine and becomes the Witch. Through a play of reflections and movements, she asserts herself, while the Queen vanishes, consumed by what she sought to become.

Lost in the depths of the forest—and of herself—Snow White faces shadows, shifting and elusive figures. The Seven fragments of herself: scattered, divergent, facets of a self in search of unity. By embracing them, she finds the strength to rise again, to pursue what is no longer flight but a destiny to embrace.

The Witch, stripped of her humanity, drags behind her the trace of her metamorphosis. As she advances, poison spreads, insidious and inevitable. When all seems frozen, an apple slips from the hands of a lifeless body.

Chavalant is struck by the brutal clarity of his responsibility. He realizes that he could have prevented the irreparable. A violent confrontation erupts between the Witch and Chavalant, between triumph and remorse. Then, rising from the depths of memory, appears the figure of lost innocence, the brilliance of sacrificed childhood. Faced with what she has destroyed, the Witch falters. Guilt grips her, swallows her. She sinks.

The Mirror offers a choice: breathe life back into Snow White, at the cost of her humanity. After hesitation, Chavalant accepts. Snow White returns—altered, cold, optimized. He chooses to love her as she has become.

The Mirror, impassive witness, closes the tale.