Since the beginning of the 2020/21 season, the German-Argentinian Demis Volpi has been Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer of the Ballett am Rhein. Along with him, 45 international dancers from a broad range of artistic backgrounds make up a team devoted to dialogue between equals and have given the company a new profile with a strong commitment to communication with the audience. The Ballett am Rhein has a long history of intense creativity in dance and powerful artistic signatures. For a new directorate, engaging with this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Demis Volpi’s team is keen to acknowledge these traditions, forge links with them, extend their thinking and add fresh impulses in order to give the Ballett am Rhein a strong, new direction of movement.
In addition to preserving and developing existing works and established artists, the Ballett am Rhein should also be a nucleus of new ideas. A place where bold experiments can turn into innovation. In 2020 Ballet Director Demis Volpi set up a new department for outreach: “Tanz mit!” wishes to promote dance in all its forms, to fill more people with a passion for dance and also to increase opportunities within the Ballett am Rhein.
Demis Volpi
The new directorate is underpinned by three core concepts. A lively engagement with tradition nourishes innovation. Maintaining and evolving the traditional repertoire and illuminating it from a contemporary perspective is an important constant in the Ballett am Rhein’s work. Choreographers such as Hans van Manen, who have had a formative influence over the company’s dance language for a long period, will continue to remain significant elements of a programme that will also be enriched by other influential styles such as those of Twyla Tharp and Roland Petit. At the same time, these established artistic positions will be juxtaposed with contemporary choreographic vocabularies such as those of Sharon Eyal, Andrey Kaydanovskiy and Aszure Barton, in order to examine their similarities and differences. The second core concept is based on storytelling. Demis Volpi is well known for his new vision of narrative ballet and also looks for passionate stories among the younger generation of choreographers. Turning works from the theatre, from literature and poetry into dance will occupy a new, central position in the Ballett am Rhein’s programme. The third core concept looks to the future. Within the company but also beyond it, among the independent dance scene and in other institutions, a new generation of artists is waiting to play its part in shaping the future of dance. This ambition should not be a peripheral phenomenon limited to its own format, but an integral part of the programme. So, for example, for his production of ‘The Nutcracker’, Demis Volpi invited both dancers from the company and two choreographers from the urban dance collective nutrospektif to choreograph their own scenes.
Expected touring program 2017/2018
Ein Deutsches Requiem
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer
45 dancers, stage 19 x 23 m, 70 min
7
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer
45 dancers, stage 16 x 20 m, 90 min
Petite Messe solennelle
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer
45 dancers,stage 17 x 16 m, 110 min
Productions from the 2015/2016 season
b.25
workwithinwork (1998)
Choreography: William Forsythe, music: Luciano Berio
16 dancers, stage 16 x 16 m, 30 min
Symphonic Variations (1946)
Choreography: Frederick Ashton, music: César Franck
6 dancers, stage 15 x 17 m, 17 min
Two Gold Variations (1999)
Choreography: Hans van Manen, music: Jacob ter Veldhuis
14 dancers, stage 15 x 18 m, 20 min
b.26
Bournonville Divertissement (1842/1858)
Choreography: August Bournonville in einer Zusammenstellung von Johnny Eliasen, music: Edvard Mads Ebbe Helstedt und Holger Simon Paulli
10 dancers, stage 17 x 18 m, 30 min
Dark Elegies (1937)
Choreography: Antony Tudor © The Antony Tudor Ballet Trust, music: Gustav Mahler
12 dancers, stage 17 x 15 m, 25 min
ONE (2016)
Choreography: Terence Kohler, music: Johannes Brahms
42 dancers, stage 18 x 18 m, 55 min
b.27
Duo Concertant (1972)
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust, music: Igor Strawinsky
2 dancers, stage 17 x 18 m, 17 min
Variationen und Partiten (2016)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Sebastian Bach
42 dancers, stage 22 x 18 m, 55 min
Der Grüne Tisch (1932)
Choreography: Kurt Jooss © The Jooss Estate, music: Fritz A. Cohen
16 dancers, stage 17 x 18 m, 35 min
b.28
Esplanade (1975)
Choreography: Paul Taylor, music: Johann Sebastian Bach
9 dancers, stage 15 x 18 m, 30 min
Tenebre (2016)
Choreography: Hubert Essakow, music: Bryce Dessner
31 dancers, stage 15 x 18 m, 30 min
Different Dialogues (2016)
Choreography: Nils Christe, music: Philip Glass
26 dancers, stage 15 x 18 m, 35 min
Young Moves
Plattform Choreographie Ballett am Rhein
odnalro (2016)
Choreography: Alban Pinet, music: Hildur Guðnadóttir
11 dancers, stage 17 x 17 m, 10 min
It is passing by (2016)
Choreography: Wun Sze Chan, music: Moondog
17 dancers, stage 20 x 17 m, 10 min
FIELDWORK: \ˈFĒLD-ˌWƏRK\ (2016)
Choreography: Louisa Rachedi, music: Cliff Martinez
7 dancers, stage 20 x 17 m, 15 min
Mindrift (2016)
Choreography: Boris Randzio, music: György Kurtág
3 dancers, stage 15 x 17 m, 12 min
Zahir (2016)
Choreography: So-Yeon Kim, music: Johann Sebastian Bach
6 dancers, stage 19 x 17 m, 15 min
Rapture (2016)
Choreography: Michael Foster, music: Michael Torke
12 dancers, stage 17 x 17 m, 12 min
Productions from the 2014/2015 season
b.24
Illusion (2015)
Choreography: Young Soon Hue, music: Philip Glass
stage 17 x 17 m
Lonesome George (2015)
Choreography: Marco Goecke, music: Dmitri Schostakowitsch
stage 20 x 16 m
Voices Borrowed (2015)
Choreography: Amanda Miller, music: G. F. Händel, Arnold Schönberg
stage 17 x 17 m
b.23
Symphonie g-Moll (2015)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: W. A. Mozart
stage 19 x 18 m
„… adónde vas, Siguiriya?“ – Capricho Flamenco (2015)
Choreography: Brigitta Luisa Merki, music: Musikensemble Flamencos en route
stage 11 x 13 m
Rättika (2008)
Choreography: Mats Ek, music: J. Brahms
17 dancers, stage 20 x 18 m, 43 min
b.22
verwundert seyn – zu sehn (2015)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: Alexander Skrjabin, Franz Liszt
15 dancers, stage 23 x 18 m, 25 min
Moves – A Ballet in Silence (1959)
Choreography: Jerome Robbins © Robbins Rights Trust
12 dancers, stage 18 x 18 m, 25 min
ein Wald, ein See (2006)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: Paul Pavey
19 dancers, stage: 18 x 18 m, 42 min
b.21
Serenade (1934)
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust, music: P. I. Tschaikowsky
26 dancers, stage 17 x 18 m, 33 min
Alltag (2014)
Choreography: Hans van Manen, music: Manuel Blasco de Nebra, G. Mahler, F. Schubert, J. S. Bach
4 dancers, stage 17 x 18 m, 16 min
Johannes Brahms – Symphonie Nr. 2 (2012)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: J. Brahms
26 dancers, stage 16 x 18 m, 55 min
b.17
7 (2013)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: G. Mahler
45 dancers, stage 16 x 20 m, 90 min
Productions from the 2013/2014 season
b.20
DEEP FIELD (2014)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: Adriana Hölszky
42 dancers, stage 18 x 19 m, 75 min
b.19
Hidden Features (2014)
Choreography: Antoine Jully, music: Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, Erwin Schulhoff
35 dancers, stage 19 x 19 m, 23 min
Scenario (1997)
Choreography: Merce Cunningham © Merce Cunningham Trust, music: Takehisa Kosugi
15 dancers, stage 17 x 17 m, 40 min
Große Fuge (1971)
Choreography: Hans van Manen, music: L. v. Beethoven
8 dancers, stage 17 x 17 m, 25 min
b.18
Episodes (1959)
Choreography: George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust, music: Anton Webern, J. S. Bach
32 dancers, stage 19 x 19 m, 30 min
Sinfonien (2009)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: Wilhelm Killmayer
9 dancers, stage 17 x 17 m, 25 min
Sorrowful Songs (2014)
Choreography: Nils Christe, music: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki
21 dancers, 1 soprano singer, stage 17 x 17 m, 40 min
b.17
7 (2013)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: G. Mahler
45 dancers, stage 16 x 20 m, 90 min
b.16
Afternoon of a Faun (1953)
Choreography: Jerome Robbins © Robbins Rights Trust, music: Claude Debussy
2 dancers, stage 16 x 19 m, 11 min
Without Words (2010)
Choreography: Hans van Manen, music: Hugo Wolf
4 dancers, stage 16 x 19 m, 20 min
Nacht umstellt (2013)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: F. Schubert, Salvatore Sciarrino
30 dancers, stage 16 x 19 m, 75 min
b.09
Ein Deutsches Requiem (2011)
Choreography: Martin Schläpfer, music: J. Brahms
44 dancers, stage 19 x 23 m, 70 min
b.25: workwithinwork / Symphonic Variations / Two Gold Variations
b.26: Bournonville Divertissement / Dark Elegies / ONE
b.27: Duo Concertant / Variationen und Partiten / Der Grüne Tisch
Opernhaus Düsseldorf
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Tel 0211 89 25 210 | Fax 0211 32 90 51
Theater Duisburg
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Tel 0211 89 25 210 | Fax 0211 32 90 51
Press contact: Monika Doll, Spokesperson Deutsche Oper am Rhein/Ballett am Rhein
Fone +49 (0)211.89 25-208, mobile: +49 (0)172.23 24 192,
m.doll@operamrhein.de