Source: The Week in Germany
Dancers from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America are strutting their stuff this month at a Berlin festival that exemplifies how a country better known for Brecht, Bauhaus and Expressionism has become one of the most dance-obsessed nations on earth.
"Tanz im August" (Dance in August) kicked off on August 17 and comes to a close on September 2. The biggest international dance festival in Germany and one of the longest anywhere, it is showcasing 24 performances, including 13 German premieres and one grand premiere, according to organizers TanzWerkstatt Berlin and Hebbel am Ufer. The pieces from 15 countries were selected to showcase current trends on the international modern dance scene.
The Berlin festival is part of a wave of dance fever sweeping across Germany, including festivals, congresses and symposia taking place on a regular basis, according to the August 12-18 edition of The Economist. To further foster this artistic flowering, the Federal Cultural Foundation in June started up a scheme whereby nine cities will share a total of €12.5 million ($16 million) over five years to develop dance.
As The Economist puts it, there is something for everyone in today's German dance scene: "The sheer variety of dance, from the most modern, and sometimes frankly audience-unfriendly, work, to the standard works such as 'Giselle', 'Swan Lake', 'La Bayadère' and 'Romeo and Juliet', make Germany, perhaps unexpectedly, as rich in dance as France is in cheeses."
American choreographers make their mark
But it was not always so: Unlike countries such as France, Britain or Russia, the history of ballet is fragmented in Germany, which has historically lacked a central court with a unifying royal family to support a ballet company based in a capital city's opera house. Today, most German cities have a full-time dance company resident in the main opera house or state theatre.
Many of these German companies have been run by outsiders from as nearby as Switzerland and as far afield as South Africa - and the United States. William Forsythe, an American choreographer who has been in charge since last year of his own privately sponsored company in Germany, built up a formidable repertoire over two decades as director of Ballett Frankfurt before it was disbanded in 2004. And Milwaukee-born John Neumeier took over the Hamburg City Ballet in 1973. Now in his mid-60s, he is credited with bringing the company an international following.
Pina Bausch is still the first lady of "Tanztheater"
Among German choreographers, Pina Bausch stands out as an international phenomenon. In 1973, the then 33-year-old dancer took over the directorship of Wuppertal's ballet and has staged about one show a year ever since. Many of her works, which combine beautiful ensemble dancing with crazy solos often involving surprise elements such as disrobing, lighting a candle or setting a newspaper on fire, are now considered modern-dance classics.
Bausch is the first lady of "Tanztheater" (dance theatre), which has prewar roots and relies more on unfamiliar movements and bodily improvisation than pre-ordained steps. It was explained thusly in Dance Magazine in 1984 by Roland Langer, a keen observer of Bausch's work: "'Tanztheater' refers to a performance form that combines dance, speaking, singing and chanting, conventional theatre and the use of props, set, and costumes in one amalgam…It has been described as a new twist on an old form: German Expressionism."
A need to dance
Berlin's "Tanz im August", which began in 1988, has been run since 2004 by André Thériault, one of four artistic directors of this year's event. He emphasizes that dancers and choreographers flocked to the German capital in the early 1990s, drawn by the attractive international working environment, low living costs and the city's renewed avant-garde reputation. Three-quarters of Germany's independent dance companies are now located in Berlin, according to The Economist.
"There is a need to dance here," Thériault told the London-based international newsweekly. "Germany is very strong on the spoken word. In the performing fields, it has a vigorous intellectual culture but traditionally not one that is good with the body. The opposite of speaking is not to speak: that is, to move. That, broadly, is what Germany has discovered in the last ten years."
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Tanz im August
