Stuttgarter Ballett presents: AUFBRUCH!
3 world premieres from Choreographers Nanine Linning (REVOLT), Katarzyna Kozielska and Edward Clug
Premiere on March 28th, 2019 in the SCHAUSPIELHAUS Stuttgart
Co-Production National Theatre Weimar and Stuttgart Ballet
Weimar 1919: The city and the year in which Germany's first democratic constitution was declared, in which the monarchy was abolished and basic liberties and rights as well as the vote for women were established. Weimar 1919: The city and the year in which a revolutionary new school was founded, a school which united crafts and fine arts for the first time, a school which accepted students regardless of their sex, religion, ethnicity and educational background: the Bauhaus school.
These two events still stand today for political and artistic breakthroughs and hold a mythical place in German cultural history. In a co-production with the German National Theatre in Weimar, the Stuttgart Ballet has commissioned three choreographers to create three new works inspired by these events as a part of the national celebrations commemorating this moment in the nation’s history. The works will receive their world premieres in Stuttgart; one week later the triple bill will be performed at the National Theatre in Weimar – on the same day as the opening of the new Bauhaus Museum. Artistic Director (Intendant) Tamas Detrich has chosen choreographers Nanine Lining, Katarzyna Kozielska and Edward Clug to create new works for this special evening, which will reflect on history, politics and art.
Premiere I
28. March 2019 Schauspielhaus Stuttgart, Germany
Premiere II
6. April 2019 Deutschen Nationaltheater Weimar, Germany
REVOLT in the press:
Suddeutsche Zeitung
"In the Stuttgart" Aufbruch! "- tableau Linning has taken on the difficult task to work up the street and barricade battles at the turn of the year 1918/19 and the constitutional pacification. Storytelling à la "Flames of Paris" was not up for debate, Linning negotiates rather the human substance of the insurgency on the basis of an abstract "Revolt". The sixteen dancers in Prussian-blue jersey uniforms throws up the engines, in other words: their bodies, and pushes their revs to the limit. Arms and legs spread like weapons in the room, displace as much space as possible. A conspiratorial trio of men prepares the ground for the collective's performance - concentrated in power or powerlessness, according to perspective. Together they advance to the ramp, brush masks of sweaty heads and plant them in rows and rows - like tombs on World War II cemeteries, reminiscent of battles and millions of victims. "
"With the choice of choreographers for this evening, which coproduced the National Theater Weimar, the new Stuttgart Ballet director Tamas Detrich has made a good choice. To touch the socio-material of an epochal caesura with dance tools was an excellent idea. And because the Stuttgart dancers understand how to ennoble fancy subjects with elegance, every "bravo" from the audience is earned. "
Stuttgarter Zeitung
"The theme was powerfully interpreted by the Dutch choreographer Nanine Linning, until 2018 artistic director of the dance company of the same name at the Theater Heidelberg. Instead of focusing on the Bauhaus, in "Revolt" she focused on the signs of the time, the mechanisms of protest. 1919 ended the previously known world: women could vote for the first time, the first democratic constitution of Germany, the Weimar, was worked out in which the freedom of expression is written down. But a hundred years later there is still a fight for democracy, equal rights and freedom.
This runs through Linnings "Revolt", mystically starting with a lonely fighter in blue vibrating light to thunder sounds - Michael Gordon's driving composition "Weather" passionately interpreted by the Stuttgart State Orchestra under Wolfgang Heinz. With verve, the seven women and nine men - led by a rousing Angelina Zuccarini and a similar Louis Stiens - danced to changing atmospheres and wandering stripes of light that rose on the horizon of the stage box.
In Leotard's skirts reminiscent of samurai, with and without fencing masks, bodies became involved, forming equal-acting communities and opposing hordes, looking intense on each other or into the audience. There were hardly any breaks in the action, constant tension, only a projection of human shadows allowed them to pause. Linnings revolt can be considered a beacon for "breakthrough."
Stuttgarter Nachrichten
"In the end, it's Nanine Linning who succeeds best in transferring the energy that must have pulsed a hundred years ago to an abstract level and dance, so that it still speaks to us today.
"Revolt" is Linnings contribution, it is almost as enthralling as its title and gives this evening a great climax. Music is the engine of the mass movement of 16 dancers; 15 Staatsorchester strings under the direction of Wolfgang Heinz chase the impulses that the composer Michael Gordon found for "Weather". With the cumulative energy of a gathering thunderstorm, Linning lets her nine men and seven ladies, led by Angelina Zuccarini as a figurehead, act. The Dutch choreographer shows with expressiveness and yet always the elegance of the ballet committed gestures.
Schwäbisches Taggblatt
"Especially Nanine Linnings" Revolt” shows disturbingly beautiful pictures, the protest movement often unleashed. Dancer groups form conglomerates of mass, mask and power; weigh and storm across the stage, to whipping, tormenting rhythms of Michael Gordon's "Weather" music, which brings the string ensemble of State Orchestra to a climax. "