Digging Deep

An unusually shaped stone lies on Anne do Paço's desk. What about it? "It's a Stone Age hand axe that I found on a beach in northern Portugal," explains do Paço at the end of April, a good two months before the end of her tenure at the Wiener Staatsballett. This symbol of early civilization isn't just aesthetically pleasing: you could still use it today to hammer nails into walls or smash something, do Paço knows. She sits across from me in her small office at the Wiener Staatsoper, which—not only for a cultural worker and humanities scholar— seems unusually structured and tidy. Apart from the archaeological find, nothing is lying around, nothing catches the eye, neither personal belongings nor office decor. The long-time dramatic adviser of the outgoing chief choreographer and ballet ...