Dance as Camouflage

Dance Theatre as a Form of Resistance

The decisive role he would play as a choreographer was not something Tom Schilling, born on 23 January 1928 in Esperstedt, Thuringia, was destined for from birth. Children's ballet in Dessau, labor and military service in 1945, then soloist at the Dresden State Opera, receiving enthusiastic instruction from Dore Hoyer and, from 1946, in Leipzig from Mary Wigman: all these influences would fuel his dance innovation— already during his first engagement at the Weimar National Theatre, then from 1956 to 1964 as ballet director at the Dresden State Opera where, in addition to Abraxas, his Schwanensee caused a sensation. Schilling's turning point came in 1965: Walter Felsenstein appointed him to the Komische Oper Berlin.

For almost two and a half decades, ...