ensembles: Ballett des Landestheater Coburg

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Portrait

A point of origin for the dance style of the group could be defined as somewhere between neo-classic and modern technique. The ballets are usually danced by female dancers en pointe. Dancing en pointe is what Mark McClain sees as the greatest difference between ballet and other dance forms. Advancing en pointe dance also plays an important role when Mark McClain creates new ballets.

The repertoire continues to include choreographies by Demis Volpi, Rosemary Helliwell, Jean Renshaw, Marc Spradling, Babsi Buser, Young Soon Hue and Tara Yipp.

The Ballett Coburg can also be seen in operas, operettas and musicals; this adds to its considerable stage presence.

Every year, a “First Steps” evening is also organised, in which the company’s dancers can introduce themselves as choreographers. It is Mark McClain’s hope that this evening will help to guarantee support for up-and-coming artists and also offer a platform for young creativity.

By organising these evenings, Mark McClain is following in John Cranko’s steps in the sense of the Noverre evenings in Stuttgart, where world-famous personalities such as Jiri Kylian, John Neumeier, William Forsythe, Uwe Scholz and many others took their first steps as choreographers.

History and biography

On the ensemble's history

The Landestheater Coburg regained its ballet back in 2008. In 2010, intendant Bodo Busse appointed Mark Mc Clain as director and choreographer of the Ballett Coburg. The ballet is still composed of nine – ten in some seasons – dancers, a ballet master and a co-repetitor. The company is made up of dancers of many different ages and nationalities; this guarantees a broad spectrum of physicality, expression, technique and emotions.

Mark McClain

Ballet director and choreographer Mark McClain regularly choreographs and presents new evening-length narrative ballets as well as smaller scale works, staged as part of the company’s ballet evenings. With classical and modern literature perspective as well as a focus on music, the continuing combination of new movement concepts and design (costumes, stages and lighting) serves as a foundation for the creation of new ballet theatre. Inter-disciplinary cooperation is important to Mark McClain, since he does not see ballet as an isolated art form.

“ ’ Movement to music’ is the point of departure for theatre that is emotionally moving. With ballet, I try to communicate dance aesthetics and narratives – to develop something new without losing the established and cultivated. My goal is to choreograph musical, theatrically expressive ballet works with developed personalities that touch the audience.”

Mark Mc Clain

Images

First Steps "Losgelassen" | Ballettensemble LTC | © Annemone Taake

Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame | Mark McClain, Tara Yipp | © Sebastian Buff

Soulmaps | Isa McClain van der Werf, Mark McClain | © Annemone Taake

Productions

2022/2023
2022/2023
Productions from the 2022/2023 season
Der Glöckner von Notre-Dame (2015)
Choreography: Mark McClain, Tara Yipp
Music: by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Georges Bizet, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky
Orchestra: Philharmonic Orchestra Landestheater Coburg under the musical direction of Roland Fister
11 dancers plus extras of the Landestheater Coburg
Duration: 110 min
First Steps "Losgelassen" (2014)
Choreography: Members of the Ballet Coburg
12 dancers (ballet ensemble Landestheater Coburg)
Duration: 60 min
Soulmaps (2022)
Choreography: Isa McClain van der Werf, Mark McClain, Tara Yipp, Miki Acker
Music: by The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse a.o.
12 dancers (ballet ensemble Landestheater Coburg)
Duration: 90 min
Giselle (1841)
Choreography: Jaume Costa, Guilherme Correia Carola, Miki Acker
Libretto: by Théophile Gautier and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges after motifs by Heinrich Heine
Music: by Adolphe Adam
Orchestra: Philharmonic Orchestra Landestheater Coburg
11 dancers plus extras Landestheater Coburg
previous seasons
previous seasons
Productions of the 2015/2016 season

Secret Affairs (2015)
Choreography: Mark McClain, Tara Yipp und Po-Sheng Yeh
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frangis Ali-Sade, Beatles
10 dancers

First Steps: Shut Up and Dance (2016)
Choreography: dancers of the Ballett Coburg
10 dancers

Aschenbrödel (2016)
Choreography: Mark McClain
Music: Johann Strauß (Sohn), completed by Joseph Bayer
10 dancers

A Clockwork Orange (2016)
Choreography: Tara Yipp
10 dancers

Productions from the 2014/2015 season
Peer Gynt (2015)
Choreography: Mark McClain; music: E. Grieg and others
TanzZeit (2015)
Choreography: dancers of the Ballet Coburg
Der Nussknacker (2012)
Choreography: Mark McClain, music: P. I. Tschaikowsky
13 dancers, children´s ballett and background actors, 120 min (inkl. pause)
HYPNOTIC POISON
Hypnotic Poison (2012)
Choreography: Demis Volpi, music: Diamanda Galás, Trio Per Uno
11 dancers
Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered (2000)
Choreography: Mark McClain, music: Jevetta Steele, Aretha Franklin,
Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Billie Holliday,
Ella Fitzgerald, 6 dancers
Contrast (2014)
Choreography: Young Soon Hue, music: John Adams, Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto
11 dancers, 135 min (inkl. two breaks)

Productions from the 2013/2014 season
Gefährliche Liebschaften (2014)
Choreography: Tara Yipp, music: François-Joseph Gossec, Maurice Ravel, W. A. Mozart and Leoš Janác̆ek
6 dancers and background actors, 120 min (inkl. break)
TanzZeit (2014)
Choreography: Chih-Lin Chan, Niko Ilias König,
Po-Sheng Yeh, Takashi Yamamoto; music: SonicBrat, Chinese Man, Caravan Palace, Yoko Kanno and others
5 dancers
First Steps – Soul`d Out (2014)
Choreography: Eriko Ampuku, Chi-Lin Chan, Eunkyung Chung, Emily Downs, Mariusz Czochrowski, Niko Ilias König, Adrian Stock, Takashi Yamamoto,
Po-Sheng Yeh, music: Goran Bregovic, Ivanovich, Miguel Frasconi, Tan Dun, Björk, Naomu, Anne Müller, Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, No Angels, Redl, 105 min (inkl. break)
BOLERO
NoiZion
Choreography: Mark McClain, music: Söhne Mannheims
14 dancers
Bedtime Stories
Choreography: Jean Renshaw, music: Gavin Bryars
2 dancers
Bolero
Choreography: Marc Spradling, music: M. Ravel
10 dancers, 90 min (inkl. break)