When the outgoing state secretary of culture, Tim Renner, and the governing mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, announced that Sasha Waltz, born in Karlsruhe, and the director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Johannes Öhman, are to take on the superintendence of the Staatsballet Berlin in 2019, there was a tremendous outcry in the ensemble. But why, we wonder. Sasha Waltz belongs to cultural, to dancing Berlin like the Television Tower belongs to Alexanderplatz. You can put it somewhere else, but it wouldn’t be the same. At the end of this year, we can look forward to something like the unofficial Sasha-Waltz-Festival in three parts. In the piece ‚Körper‘, Waltz and her company bring beauty and ugliness, the inside and the shape of the human body to the minimalistic stage. In 1999, a choreographical trilogy about humans and their body, filled the, at the time empty, Jüdisches Museum with moving physicality. ‚Körper‘ is the first part of this trilogy and, after a long time, can be seen in Berlin again at the end of November. ‚Le Sacre du Printemps‘ by Igor Strawinsky, on the other hand, is considered one of the key works of modern time, as a masterpiece of dance and music history. One hundred years after it came into being, Sasha Waltz took on this unusual, seemingly archaic, tension-filled and edgy composition on behalf of the Mariinsky Theater. Closing the little Waltz-Festival from December 15th to 18th will be ‚Allee der Kosmonauten‘, so the piece that brought her world fame, in the exact spot where everything began: The Sophiensäle in Berlin Mitte, which just turned 20. Free theatre, culture in progress and Sasha Waltz? Fits together. If you need some convincing, here you go! Future means change, means common ground. Which would do dancing Berlin good. Find the dates for the most beautiful marriage of culture below.
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Sasha Waltz & Guests | Körper, November 23rd to 27th, 2016 Haus der Berliner Festspiele | Tickets | Sacre November 25th , Staatsoper im Schillertheater | Tickets | Allee der Kosmonauten, 15.-18.12.2016, Sophiensäle Berlin | Tickets | Facebook | Foto: Bernd Uhlig
