Germany Has Become as Rich in Dance as France is in Cheeses

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."

Links:

Tanz im August

German Farmer Living High off the Hog after Switching from Pork to Solar Energy

Could solar energy solve U.S. energy problems? German laws promoting renewable energy might show us how it can be done. The New York Times reported last week about a German farmer who successfully transformed a struggling pig farm into a solar energy plan with help from renewable energy subsidies. When Heiner Gärtner inherited his father’s 200 acre pig farm in Bavarian Buttenwiesen four years ago, he faced a difficult economic choice. With pork prices falling in the face of competition from other countries, he considered selling the farm that his great grandfather established. However, a 2004 law that guaranteed minimum prices per kilowatt-hour for solar energy that were up to three times the market made it possible for Gärtner to keep his farm and make a profit. Fields that used to yield corn, wheat, and barely now produce electricity – the fruit of 10,050 photovoltaic panels.

7.2 million square meters of solar panels were installed last year in Germany

At full capacity, Gärtner estimates that his farm could supply electricity for the entire village of Buttenwiesen, which has about 7,000 residents. Currently, however, the city only buys electricity to meet peak demand. Still, the solar farm brings in revenues of over $600,000 annually, which will allow him to repay the loans for $5 million in start up costs in about 15 years and keep his family’s farm.

Gärtner built his solar farm while the German solar industry was experiencing rapid expansion. Thanks in part to the Renewable Energy Sources Act of 2000, this industry has seen annual growth rates of between thirty and forty percent since 1999. In 2005, Germany became the global leader in the solar energy market, with over 7.2 million square meters of solar collectors installed that year.

Although solar energy only accounts for about 0.1 percent of Germany’s energy use today, it is an important element of Germany’s renewable energy plan. It’s also just one element of Gärtner’s plan. He kept his 1,000 pigs and uses their waste to fuel a biogas plant that generates electricity. As he told the New York Times, “One of the criticisms of solar energy is that it is unpredictable because the sun doesn’t always shine. This is completely predictable.”

Source: The Week in Germany