Aya Okumura and Johnny McMillan at rehearsals for VOICES (Photo: Yan Revazov)
The Staatsballett Berlin starts the 2021/22 season with a lot of emotion and fundamental questions. ONEGIN at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden combines dancing skills with a heartbreaking love story, with almost all the main roles newly cast. The new series of talks BALLET FOR FUTURE? WE MUST TALK! puts the art form of ballet to the test from different perspectives. The first premiere, DAWSON at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, premieres David Dawson’s creation VOICES, inspired by the Declaration of Human Rights. And for those who are already looking forward to October: advance booking for all performances in October begins on 3 September at 12 noon.
»ONEGIN« – Debuts, Debuts, Debuts
The emotional story ballet ONEGIN by John Cranko returns to the stage of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden with many debuts in the leading roles. On 9 and 17 September 2021, Aya Okumura as Tatjana and Dinu Tamazlacaru as Onegin will dance for the first time. Yuria Isaka, who was promoted to demi-soloist at the start of the season, interprets the role of Olga, Arshak Ghalumyan embodies Prince Gremin for the first time. On 24 and 25 September, Evelina Godunova debuts as Olga with Alexandre Cagnat – also promoted to demi-soloist – as Lensky and Yevgeniy Khissamutdinov as Prince Gremin. You can find the complete casts here.
Accompanying the performance on 17 September, Tanz ist KLASSE!, the State Ballet’s education programme, offers a family workshop for children aged 10 and over and their parents with an age-appropriate introduction to the piece.
Dates:
9, 17, 24, 25 September 2021, 7.30 p.m. each evening, Staatsoper Unter den Linden
17 September 2021, 5.30 p.m., Family Workshop, Staatsoper Unter den Linden
BALLET FOR FUTURE? WIR MÜSSEN REDEN!
What is the significance of ballet as an art form in the 21st century? The Staatsballett Berlin opens the debate that has arisen in the public sphere about the repertoire, canon and practice of classical ballet and questions changing thematic complexes within the framework of five dates. The first is the question of what should be on stage: “Ballet Repertoire Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. On 14 September 2021 at 7 pm, a journalist, a dance scholar, a dancer and an artistic director will discuss and contribute their different perspectives.
Dates:
14 September 2021, 7 pm, Deutsche Oper Berlin – Foyer de la danse, free admission, registration required at balletforfuture@staatsballett-berlin.de
World premiere »DAWSON«
The renowned choreographer David Dawson is creating for the first time in Berlin and will premiere the two-part evening DAWSON with the Staatsballett on 26 September. His creation VOICES for fourteen dancers takes music by Max Richter as its starting point, which deals with the Declaration of Human Rights and embarks on a search for an ideal of being human. Created during the lockdown from January 2021, it is shaped by its genesis, according to the choreographer: “This situation has shaped this creation. A creative process can move very quickly, but this work was really a meditation, on the ideals that we look for in life, on the utopia that we imagine or the place where they can exist. And that’s what we were really trying to do in that moment, in a very real way.” VOICES is accompanied by CITIZEN NOWHERE, a tour de force for a dancer who explores feelings of being lost and stateless in a 20-minute solo.
On 19 September 2021, there will be an opportunity to experience the choreographer and the artistic team personally in conversation about the background of the production in an introductory matinee.
Dates:
19 September 2021, 11 a.m., Introductory Matinee, Deutsche Oper Berlin
26 September 2021, 6 pm, Premiere, Deutsche Oper Berlin
Staatsballett at »Kunst im Bau«
The RBB celebrates 90 years of the Haus des Rundfunks with the festival “Kunst im Bau”. The Staatsballett Berlin is also represented and offers DIE NACHT, a half-hour programme in the atrium by and with dancers from the company. Five short choreographies by three members of the ensemble – Arshak Ghalumyan, Olaf Kollmannsperger and Alexander Abdukarimov – all created in the course of the past months, present the creative work in unusual times. Arshak Ghalumyan conceives the performance and also develops a work especially for the atrium with the ten participants of the newly launched Mentorship Programme, which finds its starting point in the sculptures by Georg Kolbe located there and translates them into movement. Olaf Kollmannsperger deals with the omnipresent restrictions and new normalities and questions the renunciation of physical contact. In solos, pas de deux and group choreographies, the dancers explore the space in different languages of movement.
Dates:
11 September 2021, THE NIGHT. Dance piece by Arshak Ghalumyan, Haus des Rundfunks
More about the venues + services: www.staatsballett-berlin.de
