At A Glance
Side Steps
Europe’s Culture Capital Chemnitz, Biennale di Venezia, Martin Harriague, Florentina Holzinger
To the point
Slowly but surely, the dance artists of the French Basque Country are managing to gain a foothold outside their home region. The most prominent example is Martin Harriague. The thoroughly contemporary choreographer from Bayonne has never worked with folklore. Once a dancer in Israel and at the Malandain Ballet Biarritz (among others), he has been leading the ballet company of the Opéra Grand Avignon since last September — a completely new feeling for the soon-to-be 40-year-old, who has finally outgrown the shoes of the newcomer. Also in September 2024, in his hometown of Bayonne, the enthusiastically celebrated man presented a wonderfully sensitive duo called Crocodile about a couple's relationship. His partner was Emilie Leriche, who is also active as a choreographer (most recently: The Longlongneverending in Hagen). At the same time, Harriague found himself as an equal among equals among the French ballet directors who want to bring more attention to the product of ballet. Harriague demonstrated this right at the beginning of his directorship by rehearsing his piece America, created at the Leipzig Ballet in 2019, with the twelve-member ensemble in Avignon: prescient, as it takes aim at a certain Donald Trump and his fantasies of omnipotence and the building of walls.
Good programming, even if reality once again seems to overtake satire. In the revised version, Harriague deepens his reflections on our media-driven, impulsive society. In Avignon, he was selected from a pool of 40 candidates. At the same time, Biarritz might lure him when it comes to the appointment of Thierry Malandain's successor from January 2027. After all, Harriague was the first and (to this date) only guest choreographer to ever create a piece for his ensemble.
Thomas Hahn
Die Moderne geht baden: Jahreszeiten, 2019; photo: Nasser Hashemi
Chemnitz
Europe’s Culture Capital
Perhaps 200 meters as the crow flies separate the Chemnitz Opera House from the local public swimming pool which is being used for an extraordinary project: the ballet around Sabrina Sadowska moves from the stage into the water presenting Modernity goes swimming. Of mermaids, nymphs and naiads. The swimming pool is just one of many venues where Chemnitz — one of the European Capitals of Culture 2025 -— will score points with art and culture. Of course, the building, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1928, is an outstanding architectural example of New Objectivity: a functional ambience with an appealing appearance, designed by city architect Fred Otto. From 1 February, the ballet ensemble will certainly set the noble, sober backdrop in the most beautiful motion.
Dorion Weickmann
Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, The Wizard of Oz, 1939; photo: imago/Mary Evans
Auctions
Top Prices
That's what you call a surprise: The top two places in the highest auction proceeds of 2024 went to paintings with a dance theme — at a single event. On 7 June, the traditional Ketterer house in Munich (specialty: German Expressionism) invited people to an auction and brought two outstanding paintings under the hammer: Alexej von Jawlensky's Spanish Dancer from 1909 and the two years younger Dance in the Variety Show, which Ernst Ludwig Kirchner colorfully immortalized. Jawlensky's Hispanic lady with a fan, his lover and later wife Helene, yielded seven million euros. Where Ernst Ludwig Kirchner got his inspiration is unknown — in any case, the result achieved a handsome 5.8 million euros. Both paintings came from private collections and will probably not find their new home in a museum. Much more money was invested in December for a pair of shoes. In Dallas, Texas, Judy Garland's sequined "Ruby Slippers" from The Wizard of Oz (one of four pairs still in existence) were up for sale to the highest bidder. They fetched an incredible $32.5 million — more than any other VIP memorabilia traded to date, including gowns from Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana. Crazy or decadent? Whatever you think of this record result, it seems to fit the second Trump era pretty perfectly.
Dorion Weickmann
Florentina Holzinger; photo: Elsa Okazaki
Biennale di Venezia
La Holzinger
Now here's a subversive maneuvre: Florentina Holzinger will deliver the Austrian contribution to the 2026 Venice Biennale with a permanent performance in the pavilion in the Giardini and site-specific actions in the Serenissima. The radical performer will be dedicated to the frictions and fusions of the female body and water. She has already announced that the audience shouldn’t expect to get through it dry-footed. If the Alpine republic should be governed by a staunch right-wing party in the future, this decision by the presumably outgoing Minister of Culture is a real Trojan horse to his successor.
Dorion Weickmann
Twyla Tharp; photo: Greg Gorman and Carolina Bianchi; Photo: Alexandre Quentin / Festival d‘Avignon
Lions in Venice
Twyla Tharp/Carolina Bianchi
Twyla Tharp will receive the Golden Lion for her life's work at the Biennale Danza di Venezia 2025. Tharp, who knows how to combine art and commerce like no other choreographer, will open the Biennale Danza on 17 July at the Teatro Malibran with a double evening to mark the 60th anniversary of her company, consisting of Diabelli from 1998 to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and the new work Slacktide to Philip Glass' Aquas de Amazonia. The Silver Lion goes to the Brazilian artist Carolina Bianchi who showed the sensational, disturbing opening to her Cadela Força trilogy at the Festival d'Avignon in 2023.
Falk Schreiber
Screenshot of the website
Cuts
New Ensemble
Berlin isn’t doing too well at the moment: clubs are dying out, the “traffic light” coalition government has imploded and therefore citizens' offices are closed (due to election preparations), and there are record cuts in the cultural budget. But Berlin is still Berlin — which means: a Freelance Dance Ensemble Berlin has been founded with 200 members from the very young to the advanced age group, newcomers to mid-career artists. Together, this top collective which is diverse in every respect is calling for a different funding policy. That's how solidarity works. Highly recommended for imitation. Says the tanz editorial team.
Ich nehm dir alles weg – Ein Schlagerballett by Joana Tischkaus; photo: Lennart Brede
Festival
Focus Dance
Focus Dance does exactly what the title promises: the small festival at the Hamburg production house Kampnagel focuses on contemporary dance, nothing more and nothing less. The current edition focuses on «the deconstruction and overwriting of white-dominated dance history», including Mamela Nyamza's Hatched Ensemble, Joana Tischkau's Ich nehm dir alles weg – Ein Schlagerballett, and Mounia Nassangar's Waacking choreography Stuck with the artist offering a Waacking workshop on top. According to Kampnagel dance dramaturge Luise März, the aim is to break down dominant narratives, transform dance techniques from different styles and create «resistant spaces that enable new narratives».
Falk Schreiber
From 27 February to 12 March; www.kampnagel.de
Photo: Alexander Schuber
Posthuman
Terminal Infinity
What actually comes after us? And does anyone even need us anymore? There are theories that artificial intelligence could develop something like consciousness this year; in terms of mental performance, digital technology has long since left us behind anyway. So? The installation Terminal Infinity in Berlin's Radialsystem illuminates "the transition of humans into an increasingly technological world and reflects the effects of technological progress on our environment and our identity." And it does so across genres: with music (Berlin Philharmonic and Karajan Academy), dance (the two dancers Leah Marojević and Gyung Moo Kim, the Dance On Ensemble and the youth dance company of Sasha Waltz & Guests are involved), and visual art (lighting design: Diego Muhr). The artistic direction is by Alexander Schubert, the choreography by Colette Sadler. So at least the art is in tried and tested human hands. But don't get too excited: we don't know how long the digital will lag behind and after all, it's not yet clear that the posthuman world is a bad thing.
Falk Schreiber
Back in Berlin, Radialsystem, 23, 24 February; www.radialsystem.de
Kratz, Girolami; photo: Alice Vacondio.
In short
- Ted Brandsen's successor at the head of Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam has been decided: Ernst Meisner, long-time director of the Junior Company, will take over the directorship in mid-2026.
- Brig Huezo, post-digital choreographer, dancer and performer, has received the Art Prize NRW in the performing arts category.
- Carolyn Brown, an outstanding dancer alongside Merce Cunningham, has died at the age of 97. In 2007, the New York Times described her memoirs Chance and Circumstance as a vital testimony to a great love, a deep connection with the works of the postmodern choreographer.
- The Nuovo Balletto di Toscana with Philippe Kratz and Pablo Girolami won the Call for choreographies of the Biennale di Danza, as did the duo Bullyache, Courtney Tylor Deyn and Jacob Samuel. They will present new creations at the festival in the summer.
- On 12 January, the director of the Theater Bremen, Michael Börgerding, died at the age of 64. Börgerding was one of the theater directors who had the dance department close to his heart. The art of dance has lost a committed advocate.
Background photo: From the trilogy If you were God: America, a collaboration between Ballett and Schauspiel Leipzig, 2019; © Ida Zenna