Martin Harriague’s ballet America draws on Donald Trump’s speeches, voice and public image to create a performance that the choreographer sees as both entertaining and disturbing. The work features 12 dancers moving to recordings of Trump and intense electronic music, and will be presented at the Grand Rex in Paris on November 10 during Le Monde’s “What World After Trump?” event.
Harriague, who has led the Ballet de l’Opéra Grand Avignon since November 2024 and is due to become director of CCN Ballet Biarritz, began developing the project in 2016, the year of Trump’s first election. He said he was interested not in Trump as a person or in his politics, but in the character he presents: a figure he describes as cartoonish, absurd, fascinating and chilling.
The piece grew from a series of short works inspired by individual words and phrases from Trump. Harriague created around ten of these between 2016 and 2019, then brought them together in chronological order after Trump’s 2024 campaign and election to form America. It was the first work Harriague presented after taking charge of the Avignon ballet, a few days after the election.
To build the production, Harriague spent eight years following Trump’s words and actions, examining the meaning, sounds and rhythms of his language and the audience’s reactions. He also attended a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in October 2024, where he said the crowd’s energy left him feeling both frightened and excited.
America focuses on the disorder of Trump’s speeches and their sound, rather than asking audiences to follow every word. Harriague said he did not subtitle the recordings, approaching the voice almost as a performer singing “bad rap.” The choreography also places other stories alongside Trump’s rhetoric, including that of a Mexican migrant and a musical tribute to Nina Simone. Harriague said he wanted these moments to suggest hope and optimism within a more confident, colorful vision of America.
The Grand Rex performance is part of an evening organized by Le Monde Ateliers, combining analysis from eight journalists with the ballet, music by N U I T, drawing by Sergio Aquindo and artistic participation from Thomas Jolly. The event will also be broadcast in partner cinemas.
The ballet is scheduled to perform at the Théâtre de la Maison du Peuple in Millau on November 26, 2026, and at the Scène de Bayssan in Béziers on November 28, 2026. A performance is also listed for Théâtre en Dracénie in Draguignan on April 10, 2027.
Sources: Le Monde Culture.