Hanover

Daedalus and his son Icarus want to fly, crafting wings held together with wax. Daedalus knows not to expect too much: not too high, be careful! But his son doesn't listen, approaches the hot sun, the wax melts, the flight becomes unstable, and Icarus falls into the sea. Choreographer Andonis Foniadakis, born on Icarus's island Crete, has adapted the ancient myth into an abstract dance piece: It's about the longing for weightlessness expressed in dance, about transgressing the body's limits, about human hubris and the pruning of those limits. Let's just say this: Keeping hubris in check is a rather unappealing concept. Jamal Uhlmann's Daedalus knows exactly what is possible and what is best avoided. Costume designer Anastasios Sofroniou has dressed him accordingly in a suit of steel armor — this doesn't look particularly appealing as an outfit, but it does add a lot of visual appeal, especially in the crowd scenes when the protagonists are multiplied, it models the bodies and makes the dance seem controlled. But not so Icarus: Floris Puts (who later becomes a surging mass with the rest of the Hannover State Ballet ensemble) is a soft, feminine character, and his red shirt reinforces this trait. Someone like that knows that concentrating on what is useful has its value — but he still wants something different, even at the price of self-annihilation. The myth of Icarus, as Foniadakis understands it, is the story of the contradiction between reason and passion, between purposeful action and longing.