La Chambre d’amour – 2025

The Chambre d’amour is a legendary cave on the Basque coast where two lovers perished long ago.  Located on the side of a cliff, this cavity formed by the sea’s ebb and flow echoes all of the mysteries connected to life and death. The tale says they were named Ura and Ederra (water and beauty in Basque). They had taken shelter in the cave when, in the throes of love, the incoming tide took them by surprise. The next morning their tightly entwined bodies were found on the sand. By dying, Ura and Ederra joined the ranks of other literary star-crossed lovers such as Othello and Desdemona, Romeo and Juliet, Dido and Aeneas, Orpheus and Eurydice… our Chambre d’amour is a reminder of them. I like to think that these shattered fates originated from the Genesis parable. When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they were banished from the Garden of Eden. Their immortality taken away, they then entered the dualistic material world; A world which from then on would be punctuated by the cadence of life and death. Could love be a nostalgic quest for lost unity?  It is said that our lovers transcend this love when they die. So is the darkness just a passageway, the night before the sun that rises every morning over the Chambre d’amour?

Thierry Malandain

“De la rigueur, de la légèreté, de la sensibilité à fleur de peau et des performances physiques.”
Sud Ouest • 18.09.2025

“On a redécouvert un bijou oublié, cette Chambre d’amour qui marqua les débuts de Malandain sur place en 2000. […] Empruntant l’un de ses thèmes à une légende basque, celle d’Ura et Ederra, elle repose sur une partition contemporaine peu agressive, signée de Peio Cabalette, à la coloration fortement ravélienne, ponctuée d’éclats proches de Stravinsky, le tout avec un charme enveloppant et étreignant. Les danseurs de la compagnie d’aujourd’hui y sont merveilleux.”
Concert Classic, Jacqueline Thuilleux •  12.09.2025

“Aujourd’hui fort de 22 danseurs, le CCN Malandain Ballet Biarritz reprend avec brio cette légende racontant la mort de deux amants Ura et Ederra (eau et beauté en Basque) engloutis dans les flots lors de leurs étreintes.”
Danser Canal Historique, Agnès Izrine • 9.09.2025