In 1996, the premiere of »Allee der Kosmonauten« was the very first production at the Sophiensaele. Since then, its choreographic approach has become legendary: the events of the piece center on the living room couch of a high-rise apartment in the Berlin suburb of Marzahn. Within this confined space, the feelings and movements of three generations of a Berlin family build up dangerously. The inhabitants bury their feelings in lethargy or abandon themselves to feedback loops caused by cramped living conditions. The choreographic encounter with this anxious space, crowded and colliding, triggers solutions at the limit of danceability. The lack of tenderness gives rise to uncomfortable comedy. Avenue of the Cosmonauts is one of a number of early Sasha Waltz projects which explore everyday worlds as spaces for dance interpretation. Created at the cusp of a new epoch, the piece recounts an era of living together without escape routes.

In »Continu« a field of tension between choreographic, musical and visual currents of energy is generated, while the title denotes the continuity of the perpetual forces of Nature. Sasha Waltz engages in »Continu« with primary impulses deriving from her major projects for museums of 2009 - the artistic inaugurations for David Chipperfield's Neues Museum Berlin and Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI in Rome. Employing twenty-four dancers she has conceived a large-format, archaic choreography. The epochal symphonic work »Arcana« by Edgard Varèse represents the musical core of »Continu«, which is then complemented by compositions by other artists like Iannis Xenakis and Claude Vivier.
Ninety years ago Varèse - a visionary artist like no other of his time - promulgated the combining of artistic and scientific content. One may speak of transformation, of change, of awakening in respect to »Arcana«, though it be not so much a matter of alchemy as of a colossal nocturnal volcanic eruption, the Promethean temptation to take possession of the cosmos encompassed by and through sound.
Since the 2010 premiere of »Continu« in Schauspielhaus Zürich the piece has been revised several times and in Salzburg, summer 2011, Sasha Waltz presented the final version. The beginning of the new version includes the live percussion solo »Rebonds B« composed by Iannis Xenakis.

Henry Purcell’s »Dido & Aeneas« is often described as the oldest love story in English opera. The production was a premiere for Sasha Waltz, marking the beginning of her work on »choreographic opera«. Together with 12 dancers from her ensemble and 51 musicians choristers and soloists, Sasha Waltz has created her own interpretation of the opera »Dido and Aeneas«. The emotional and multi-faceted world of this, Purcell’s only complete opera, is the starting point for the choreographic work. The choreographic transposition of the opera and the expansion of musical theatre through the medium of dance are at the heart of the »Dido & Aeneas « project. The combination of various genres and art forms has been the main focus of the work of Sasha Waltz in recent years. This has led to the realisation of such diverse projects as »Dialoge'99« at the Jewish Museum, »17-25/4« in and around the Mendelssohn building on Rosa Luxemburg Platz and the dance installation »insideout«. With the adaptation of Schubert’s »Impromptus« which premiered in April 2005, the ensemble has turned to classical music and entered a new creative phase of its evolution. Staging an opera was therefore a logical step in Sasha Waltz’s artistic biography. With »Dido & Aeneas«, Sasha Waltz successfully combines dance, music and song in a completely new way for the opera. Singers and choristers are part of an overall choreography, which sets them loose from their original roles and functions. In Dido’s final aria, it is no longer clear who is a singer, dancer, soloist or choir member. With the help of the impressive ensemble, Sasha Waltz’s choregraphy goes far beyond the mere illustration of the opera’s story. The opera »Dido & Aeneas«, a myth of flight, expulsion and love in times of war was acclaimed at its premiere in 2005 and at countless guest performances since.

»What would you like to escape from? Where do you think is Utopia?« were the questions with which Sasha Waltz and the dancers entered into this project. Proceeding from personal escape wishes and longings, a process of movement was unrolled wherein the individuals coalesce to a community of shared fate. Against the backdrop of contemporary crises and times of global upheaval, their collective body describes the quest for a way out. Dance, which enables us to live a truly transcultural community and find formal solutions collectively and free of any regime, becomes in this process a medium of exploring societal questions. The choreography unfolds as a relationship of the crowd to itself and simultaneously as a questioning of its own formal frame. The dissolution of boundaries between stage and auditorium enables the public to range freely through the space and actively transform their viewpoint.

The project builds upon its preceeding piece »Kreatur« (2017) which deals with the immediate conditions of physical existance; relationships between beings of varying strength and power who coexist within the same space. »EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos« deals with the breaking out of such immediate conditions – into spaces, states and perspectives that lie beyond. »Way out« is one of the meanings of the modern greek word EΞΟΔΟΣ. Further, it means escape, as well as going out into nightlife or the leaving of a stage and thus the intermediary state between play and real life. Sasha Waltz’ choreographic work searches for the overlaps and connections between these various transgressive motifs: along the limits of physical capacity, the threshold to fear, ecstasy, anarchy, utopian worlds.

The choreography of »EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos« is again placed in dialogue with Urs Schönebaum’s space-creating light design. The costumes were designed by Federico Polucci. The set design was developed by Sasha Waltz in collaboration with the architect and stage designer Heike Schuppelius. The sound score was composed by Soundwalk Collective, as for »Kreatur«, in close exchange with the choreographic process. »EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos« is coproduced by Ruhrtriennale and created in the year of the 25th anniversary of Sasha Waltz & Guests.

»EΞΟΔΟΣ I Exodos« is a coproduction of Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Ruhrtriennale. Made in Radialsystem.

From 1st to 4th January 2017 the choreographic Installation »Figure Humaine« by Sasha Waltz with about 80 musicians, singers and the dancers of her compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests will inaugurate the Foyers of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

Due to production-related reasons there are currently no tickets available.
Additional tickets will be available to book on 27 December at 11:00.
Tel: +49 40 357 666 66
http://bit.ly/swgelbphilharmonie

»I envisage assembling a small body of musicians and dancers in order to experiment with the notion of interstices – the »gaps« within music, the »space« within the tones.«
(Sasha Waltz)

»It concerns existential conditions, perhaps metaphysical ones as well – folding as a response to impulse.«
(Mark Andre)

The choreographic concert »gefaltet« by Sasha Waltz and Mark Andre opens Mozartwoche 2012 in Salzburg. This is the first collaboration between the French composer and the German choreographer. As their material, Sasha Waltz and Mark Andre apprehend »folding«, or convolution – a procedure in electronic music that generates an acoustic response to acoustic impulses. With »gefaltet« this principle is broadened to a dialogue between dancers and musicians. Impulses and responses of their bodies unfold and intensify interstices and thresholds, emptiness and distances.
Together with eight dancers and four musicians, Sasha Waltz and Mark Andre investigate the interplay between classical and New Music, between sound, movement and silence.
Selected works including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s string trio KV 563 in E flat major and compositions by Mark Andre, such as »iv 1« for solo piano and the string trios »iv 2« and »iv 8«, constitute the musical field of experiment.

A room where traces and vestiges of the past are evident. The last remaining place of sanctuary, the final refuge. The catastrophe outside is destroying everything, threatening the captives of a common destiny, penetrating ever deeper. With their current work »Gezeiten« Sasha Waltz and her new ensemble of sixteen dancers investigate the transformations to which Life is continually subject. Seeking an idiom which can fathom the physical and metaphysical strata, »Gezeiten« is concerned with the interrelation of destruction and renewal. Sasha Waltz takes divers aesthetic and contextual standpoints, bringing together the representational and surreal theatricality of her early pieces, where everyday objects transmute to being living dance-partners, with the abstraction and physical dynamism of her recent works. She concentrates in particular on the crises that disrupt the normal flow. With the peril from outside the captives face existential questions and terrors; deliberations regarding ownership and power; and the simultaneous dwindling and increase of compassion for the suffering of others. New regulations and structures are established. What will remain following disintegration and collapse? How do we rebuild our world - again and again? What is worth saving?

For the first time Sasha Waltz develops a dance piece based on the structure of a classical music composition. The music will be performed live onstage together with vocal accompaniment of four »Schubert-Lieder«. The dance like the music create in a subtle way emotional states between weightless floating and being off balance. Sasha Waltz researches in her work the existential questions of the human body with its vulnerability and beauty. Dance at its most riveting, at once unmasking, manipulating, and ultimately exalting in the innumerable aspects that make us human.

In 2021, the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests began an innovative artistic process that results in the continuous production of both digital and live formats. Terry Riley’s »In C« (1964) forms the musical foundation of this, an open composition that was revolutionary at the time and is generally considered the first piece of minimalist music. Based on this milestone of music history, Sasha Waltz and her dancers developed choreographic material that follows a similarly variable structure and is deliberately designed not to be a finished stage piece. In March 2021 »In C« received its world premiere on a livestream from the radialsystem in Berlin to the sound of a recording by »Bang on a Can« and has since been performed live (inter-)nationally.

»In C« is an experimental, constantly evolving process that once again reconceives and refines Sasha Waltz & Guests’ long-standing approach as well as the dialogue between dance, music and space, both digitally and in real life. At the same time, it explores the potential of flexible artistic production in times of pandemic and of artistic exchange, even across national borders. F.e. the individual movement phrases have also been recorded as video tutorials, which allows dancers to learn the choreographic material digitally and remotely.

»The score of »In C« consists of fifty-three musical phrases and reads like stage directions for musicians. The thought of translating these detailed instructions into dance through a choreographic exploration of the music appealed to me. The result is an experimental system of fifty-three choreographic figures for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws. The length of the piece remains variable, as does the number of musicians and dancers. »In C« is also a very democratic score, because it gives freedom to the individual dancer within the ensemble: It is a piece about being part of a group as an individual rather than being an individual within a group. »In C« is a dynamic, modular system that remains adaptable in times of pandemic. It is an exciting challenge to be able to develop so many different variations and formats from it in the future, both for professional dancers and, in the long term, for children and amateurs.«
Sasha Waltz

Realizing »insideout« is something, Sasha Waltz has been dreaming of for a long while. It’s already been for ten years she’s been thinking about a play, which can be approached by the spectator in a personal way, being free to move around, just like in an art exhibition. In addition to that it is important to her to focus again on the single dancer, after recently having produced big group choreographies like »Körper« or »noBody«.
It was the initiative of this year’s Europe Culture Capital Graz, which brought her to develop the interdisciplinary production »insideout« together with twenty actors and ten musicians from Asia, Europe, North- and South America. Accordingly to the personal life-stories of the dancers and actors the play deals with social and individual values, life-styles and status symbols. What do we need to develop our identities? What do origin, family and history still mean today? The single multilayered personalities create a multiply facetted kaleidoscope. The cultural scientist and co-initiator Karl Stocker edited a book related to the production, containing Interviews with the members of the ensemble, sociological theses by Baudrillard, Beck, Bourdieu and others.
In her first dramatic musical work the composer Rebecca Saunders integrates both single solo, duets and trios for ten musicians, distributed on stage, and mechanical music into a multilayered composition. In addition the video artist Philip Bußmann creates associative visual perceptions through his projections. Sasha Waltz continues a long lasting cooperation with set designer Thomas Schenk and light designer Martin Hauk. Living sculptures, animated objects, an intimate atmosphere between audience and actors, as well as coinciding simultaneous actions, pictures and sounds are characteristic for this performance.

Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008)
Wolfgang Rihm has named the current version of his composition »Jagden und Formen« »Zustand 2008«. This is a piece that, having appeared in a number of variants, spaces and constellations as »Werklandschaft«(Wolfgang Rihm) - Work Landscape, has wended a winding course. »Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008)« is as well an apt title for the choreographic work that Sasha Waltz is developing together with her company Sasha Waltz & Guests and Ensemble Modern to accompany this piece.

Sasha Waltz & Guests and Ensemble Modern
Two outstanding ensembles, the one from Music the other Dance, consisting of first-rate soloists come together, first in Frankfurt and then Berlin. The two “clusters” have much in common: Institutional independence, and the uncompromising searching for new modes of artistic expression outside the conventional. The present music-choreography project from Ensemble Modern and Sasha Waltz & Guests was divided into a number of phases. Subsequent to an initial meeting between Wolfgang Rihm and Sasha Waltz a further development of the score by the composer followed. On this basis the two ensembles embarked on an intensive dialogue. At the Frankfurter Positionen the product of this work process, to be developed further still in the future, will be presented. Wolfgang Rihm’s highly energetic and complex music, which in itself seems to describe a variety of bodily formations and elementary physical states, finds its counterpart in the choreography of the dancers and musicians.

Life’s substance can be pulled this way and that, thrown about, piled up and dissected. Through a sober recognition of the body’s materiality, this piece tries to understand the fundamental split imposed on us by our physical nature. It interrogates cultural templates for movement, brutal forms of pleasure, enhanced performance and cosmetic improvement: the body regarded as a resource. Why do we treat our fragility with such severity? Why do our accounts of our own bodies always bypass what we actually feel? Naked to the skeleton, to the kidneys, the piece submits the body to an even more radical undressing: the removal of the names which afflict and conceal it at every turn. Twisting and turning the body, taking it down wrong paths, over and over again this choreography begins the work of a genuine making-visible. The body appears as something never before seen.

For »Kreatur« Sasha Waltz with her 14 dancers examines the phenomena of existence against the background of a disrupted society: power and a lack of power, dominance and weakness, freedom and control, community and isolation.

»Matsukaze« is among the best-loved classics of Japanese Nô Theatre. The sisters Matsukaze and Murasame are each in love with the same man who does not return from a journey. Their longings however remain unrequited in this life. Years after death the sisters’ spirits revisit this world in tireless pursuit of their beloved.
With the world première of »Matsukaze« Sasha Waltz follows up on her opera productions »Medea« and »Dido & Aeneas« which revolve around the fates of two female figures from ancient times. By way of her self-created choreographic opera Sasha Waltz has expanded the realm of Music Theatre, employing theatrical methods derived from Dance to fashion a new mix of dance, song and music.
Outstanding contemporary Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa wrote the music to the reworked libretto of the Nô Theatre classic »Matsukaze«. Musical direction is by renowned conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. Together with soloists Barbara Hannigan and Charlotte Hellekant extraordinary singers unite once more with dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Vocalconsort Berlin on the opera stage.
Alongside its long-standing partnership with the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg with whom the company previously jointly produced »Dido & Aeneas« and »Medea«, Sasha Waltz & Guests is as well working in conjunction with the Opera La Monnaie in Brussels and the Berliner Staatsoper. For the first time the Polish National Opera will join Sasha Waltz & Guests in a production as a coproducer.

After her world-acclaimed, debut opera production of 2005, »Dido & Aeneas« by Henry Purcell, the choreographer Sasha Waltz turned in 2007 her attention to the tragedy Medea.
At centre of her work are previous exegeses of materials, such as contemporary interpretations that contrast with the Antique image which painted Medea as Fury, revenger and child-murderer. Christa Wolf’s Novel »Medea. Stimmen« (Medea. Voices) and Heiner Müller’s »Medeamaterial« provide important impulses. Sasha Waltz appraises the feminine power of the healer and the mother – thus in her work the creative and destructive powers of the character are situated in pronounced tension.
Pascal Dusapin’s 1991 composition »Medeamaterial« with texts by Heiner Müller, reworked in cooperation with the Akademie für Alte Musik and the Vocalconsort Berlin, is the basis for this choreographic-musical examination of the Medea myth. Marcus Creed is musical director; the solo part of Medea is played by renowned coloratura soprano Caroline Stein. The exploration of these mythic materials allows the choreographer to engage with all her artistic capabilities. The world of antiquity is made palpable by way of expansive group formations, the archaic vocabulary of images melds with that of the movement.
Sasha Waltz in working with a large collective has found happy correspondence with the music of Pascal Dusapin who has the coloratura soprano accompanied by a chorus (from vocal quartet up to twenty singers), as partner, echo and reflection, almost throughout his opera. The contemporary composer Pascal Dusapin is very much involved with Antique Early Music: He wrote his opera »Medeamaterial« for the noted Baroque Orchestra de La Chapelle Royale and the Collegium Vocale Gent.

Sasha Waltz & Guests and Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop constitute a potent artistic alliance. In 2009, as part of Sasha Waltz’s »Dialoge« series, the two ensembles, in collaboration with Vocalconsort Berlin, created the artistic inauguration of the Neues Museum (New Museum) by David Chipperfield, enchanting thousands of viewers.

»Metamorphoses« consists of six self-contained »miniatures« - three duets and three group pieces, to works by Ruth Wiesenfeld, Iannis Xenakis, Georg Friedrich Haas and György Ligeti - each a discourse with the architecture of the Neues Museum.

Na Zemlje (engl.: On Earth) is the title of this German-Russian coproduction with Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Moscow based theatre School for Dramatic Arts of Anatoly Vasiliev and the Class for Expressive Movement directed by Gennadij Abramov. Six dancers of the Class and six dancers
of Sasha Waltz’s company are involved in the production.
The meeting of two different cultures played an integral role in the creative process of this piece. In contrast with most of her former work where she dealt with urban life, in Na Zemlje she researches the relationship between nature and human beings. Fighting, domination, sacrifice and healing are the main themes of the choreography.
During the first three weeks of rehearsal the company worked on the estate of K. S. Stanislavskij in Ljubimovka. Situated on the rural outskirts of Moscow this estate was used by the actors of the Moscow Art Theatre during the rehearsel period of A. P. Chekhov’s première of »The Seagull«. This was also the setting where »The Cherry Orchard« was written. Today the pastoral times of the past have disintegrated due to the destruction of nature and the unpredictability and hardship in Russia. The residency at Ljubimovka and the atmosphere of the pictures by Pieter Bruegel stimulated this choreographic work of Sasha Waltz.

The music compositions for the piece are by Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola as are the arrangements of the Russian folk song. Like in »Zweiland« the dancers sing and play themselves.

»noBody« completes a choreographic cycle of three pieces about humans and their bodies which Sasha Waltz created in the years around the turn of the millennium. In her piece »Körper«, she investigated the materiality of the human being, relating the dancers' bodies to architecture, science and history. »S« searches for the origin of life, explores eros and sensibility. »noBody« deals with metaphysical levels to human existence. It addresses the absence of the body and confronts us with feelings aroused by our realisation of being mortal. What does being human mean beyond having a body? Which part of us is immortal? In »noBody«, the choreographer and 23 dancers face the challenge of visualizing the non-physical through the physical.

The dancers Luc Dunberry, Sasa Queliz and Junko Wada are part of the original cast from 2002.

Claudio Monteverdi’s »Orfeo« is considered to be the first opera and a masterpiece of European musical history. Certainly, this setting to music of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the earliest surviving »Favola in musica«, which at its première in 1607 apprehended for the first time instrumental music, song, dance and theatre as a unit.
For Sasha Waltz, »Orfeo« brings together different strands from previous creations, and connects soloists from her arrangements of contemporary pieces with actors from the world of ancient music.
Her version of Henry Purcell’s baroque opera »Dido & Aeneas« signaled the start of a new chapter in her artistic work. She enhanced the media of musical theatre through the theatricality of dance and created a new genre for the opera, a fusion of dance song and music: the choreographic opera. This new genre continued its development as Sasha Waltz worked on the compositions »Medea« (Dusapin, 2007), »Roméo & Juliette« (Berlioz, 2007), »Passion« (Dusapin, 2010) and »Matsukaze« (Hosokawa, 2011).
After first encountering the myth of Orpheus in Pascal Dusapin‘s chamber opera »Passion«, Sasha Waltz returns to the roots of baroque music and not only involves the choir and the soloists in the movement on stage, but also draws the dancers into the musical performance.
For her »Orfeo«, Sasha Waltz will once more work together with director Pablo Heras-Casado and the vocal soloists Charlotte Hellekant and Georg Nigl. She will also continue her long running partnership with the Vocalconsort Berlin. This project will also bring together the company Sasha Waltz & Guests with the Freiburger BarockConsort – the Freiburger Barockorchester’s chamber group – for their first ever collaboration. The stage will be designed by Alexander Schwarz, member of David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin.

Following on from »Dido & Aeneas« (2005), »Medea« and »Roméo et Juliette« (2007) Sasha Waltz is with »Passion« again developing a choreographic opera. Like »Medea« a contemporary composition by Frenchman Pascal Dusapin serves as the fundament. The nucleus of Sasha Waltz’s choreography is the solo singers Barbara Hannigan and Georg Nigl, complemented figuratively by a small group of dancers.

Pascal Dusapin’s »Passion« is a musical engagement with the Orpheus myth. Claudio Monteverdi’s operatic setting is for Dusapin at centre. For the most part he relates the myth through Eurydice’s eyes.
Dramaturgically the myth describes the treatment. The staging and lighting indicate the boundaries between worlds. In course of the performance the players on stage, pass through various membranes separating the world of the living (»Reality«) from the hidden world (the »Underworld«).
The title role is sung by the magnificent Barbara Hannigan, her partner being her peer Georg Nigl. The Vocalconsort Berlin constitutes the chorus, while Ensemble Modern under direction of Franck Ollu with whom the compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests realised Wolfgang Rihm’s »Jagden und Formen« provides the music. The libretto is in Italian.
The composition was commissioned by the Festival d´Aix-en-Provence 2008. Sasha Waltz’s choreographic opera was premièred in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
on October 6th, 2010.

Following her last two projects – »Kreatur« and »Exodos«, which plumbed timeless, in ways archaic, levels of human existence and social interaction – in her latest piece from 2019, Sasha Waltz focuses on life in the present, which is embedded within artificial structures. »rauschen« deals with a society that inhabits a perfect environment, but has lost touch with the world, and is gaining a new dimension against the backdrop of our current situation of social distancing and a yet increased shift towards the digital.
One of the main restrictions for the movement of the twelve dancers were a prohibition or extreme limitation of real physical contact between the dancers. George Lucas’ dystopian science fiction movie »THX 1138«, depicting our current technologized state of life almost prophetically in 1967, served as one important source of inspiration during the creation of »rauschen«. The main questions here included: What language of movement results from conditions in which mind and body are inextricably entwined with technology? What position do we find ourselves in, surrounded by an overabundance of comforts that are simultaneously a means of control? What is the horizon of a globally networked life that has simultaneously forgotten the world? The semicircular stage area can thus be understood as a call to interrogate and explore anew our own inner panoramas. The slightly modified choreography leads to a process of revelation, in which the piece’s visual and dance-oriented languages are seized and transformed by a subversive power.
»rauschen« is a collaboration with lighting designer David Finn, who has mainly worked with Sasha Waltz on her large-scale opera productions, and whose lively spheres of light play across the perfectly white stage. The costumes were designed by Bernd Skodzig, whose creations have accompanied Sasha Waltz’s choreographic production for many years now.

Bodies in space over time. We are present. We are present in this room. But we are also present together in this time. What traces have we / will we leave behind? In his German debut commissioned by Sasha Waltz & Guests, the American performer, author, and director Andrew Schneider and nine dancers of the compagnie embark on a research journey into the simultaneously scientific and mystical fields of quantum entanglement and human entanglement. How do quantum entanglements affect the energy between two human beings? Do ghostly events inscribe themselves in the body from afar? Do they have lasting effects on our togetherness? Is there an explanation for how we ended up right here and now? And can invisible forces be experienced?
Andrew Schneider works at the intersection of experience and technology. He is not interested in technology for itself, but in how technology can be used to give audiences experiences that they’ve never before had.

Sasha Waltz’ 2007 production of »Roméo et Juliette« for the Opéra National de Paris was the Berlin choreographer’s third work for the opera stage after »Dido & Aeneas« and »Medea« (2007), new versions of which she later produced for Milan and Berlin. Inspired by Berlioz’ theatre music, her choreography explores the interplay of love and death and presents a tragic fate that still allows for hope. For their respective families the sacrifice of the young lovers means the chance of a new beginning: »The dance of death becomes a dance of life.«

»S« represents the middle section of the »Körper Trilogy« by Sasha Waltz. The piece acts as a connective link between the investigation of the physical being in »Körper« and the metaphysical being in »noBody«. While sexuality and Eros are all but absent from these two pieces, with »S« they constitute central themes. The New York musician Jonathan Bepler, renowned for his long-standing collaboration with Matthew Barney on »Cremaster Cycle«, composed the room-encompassing original music for the production.

L'Après-midi d'un faune
Scène d'Amour
Sacre

Considered one of the key works of modernism, it is a hundred years after the genesis of Igor Stravinsky’s »Le Sacre du Printemps« that Sasha Waltz takes on the Mariinsky Theatre’s offer to engage with this extraordinary piece of musical and dance history. Its title translates to »The Rite of Spring«. The strikingly archaic, tension-charged and angular composition is characterised by a strongly emphasised rhythm, precipitous drops and a layering of constantly repeating musical motives. Its many almost noise-like dissonances and expressionist sonic impression have made the work one of the most famous pieces of music of the modern avant-garde.
Earlier large-format pieces of Sasha Waltz’, »Na Zemlje« (»on Earth«, 1999), »Medea« (2007), »Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008)«, and »Continu« (2010) have already showcased elements of her research into rites and group dynamics. With her choreography of Igor Stravinsky’s »Le Sacre du Printemps«, she now dedicates an entire piece to these themes.

»For a long time, I have been interested in the archaic myths and rites that conjure up the power and grand order of nature. In today’s highly technologized world, the forces of nature have been reduced to appear almost exclusively in the form of catastrophe. Rituals, on the other hand, display nature’s cyclical structure and address the relationship of humankind to its origins. The belief in and the connection to a higher order are strengthened; the individual sacrifices himself for the sake of the community. The choreography for »Le Sacre du Printemps« by Stravinsky offers me the chance to dedicate an entire piece to this material.«
(Sasha Waltz)

In 2013, the new production »Sacre« was shown in St. Petersburg, Paris, Brussels and Berlin. Each performance had been part of a multi-piece evening seeking to relate other works to »Sacre«, such as the reconstructed 1913 original choreography of »Le Sacre du Printemps« by Stravinsky/Nijinsky in St. Petersburg and »Jagden und Formen (Zustand 2008)« by Sasha Waltz & Guests to Wolfgang Rihm’s music in Brussels. The Mariinsky Ballet danced in St. Petersburg and Paris, while the cast of the company Sasha Waltz & Guests presented the performances in Brussels and Berlin for the first time.
In Berlin »Sacre« celebrated its German premiere as a three-part evening together with Sasha Waltz’ choreographies of »Scène d’Amour« with music by Hector Berlioz, and Debussy’s »L’Après-midi d’un faune« musically directed by Daniel Barenboim with the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Concealed behind Sasha Waltz’s choreography is more than just dance and music. Stage elements and spatial design contribute to lending expression to the choreographies of a unique, artistic form. On the occasion of her birthday, the ZKM brings back the internationally celebrated choreographer, Sasha Waltz, to her native city Karlsruhe. Furthermore, the twenty-year anniversary of the dance ensemble »Sasha Waltz & Guests« which Waltz founded, now provides excellent occasion to present her work in an entirely new context beyond the world’s renowned stages at the ZKM | Media Museum.
With the special exhibition, the ZKM honors Sasha Waltz’s fundamental role in the world of international dance and stage. For some time the choreographer has played with the idea to disengage stage design and multimedia elements from the context of the stage and to present them as independent installations. Now, with the exhibition at the ZKM, this idea is about to be realized. Embedded in the context of the museum, this exhibition offers visitors the unique opportunity to experience the visual-aesthetic dimension of the choreographic works by Sasha Waltz. At the same time, representational elements are captured otherwise reserved for the elusiveness of a performance.

Sasha Waltz’ latest work for dance, light and orchestra »SYM-PHONIE MMXX« is a commissioned work by the renowned composer Georg Friedrich Haas and is his first official stage work for dance after numerous operas.

Composed for the large symphonic ensemble of the Staatskapelle Berlin, the music gives room to a symphony of dance and music, which creates a close connection between the musical language and the dancers’ body language.

The production’s concept, in the best tradition of dance history, is based on the inspiring encounter of the arts and has been declared the artistic guideline: music, dance and visual arts are transformed by Sasha Waltz and her artistic team into a full-length work which at the same time reflects the contrasts and contradictions of our current life reality like a seismograph. Thus creating a piece of clamorous silence and eruptive energy.

»In SYM-PHONIE MMXX I want to shape the extreme experience of our reality and create a contemporary genre painting.«
Sasha Waltz

Georg Friedrich Haas is one of the most successful composers of contemporary music. His success is due in part to having dedicated himself to the utopian idea – »unattainable in hundred percent perfection« – of creating a new music that is both expressive and soothing – not despite of its newness, but precisely because it is new.

An Opera by Richard Wagner with the Staastopernchor and the Staatskapelle Berlin

Humor, aggression and sensuality are important elements of my choreographic work. Use of concrete objects, sets, film editing techniques and the grotesque movements of the silent movies are major sources of inspiration in developing my movement vocabulary. The language is expressive and emotional, but still leaves space for abstraction. The simple events of daily life with comic turning points build the contrast to the dramatic and emotionally loaded parts. I concentrate on detail and the subtlety of gestures and action to create an intricate and rhythmic picture of our time. Cliché and stereotype transform the characters into caricatures of themselves. The music is a driving force in the creation of my pieces. For TRAVELOGUE the music is an original composition by Tristan Honsinger.

Starting point of »Travelogue I – Twenty to eight« is the kitchen. On this location, five people meet. The kitchen acts as a mirror in which rituals, habits and behavior patterns can be observed and reflected as they truly are. Through these reflections a web of relationships is woven. The characters run around, neurotic and obsesessive in their actions, lonely and lost, unable to find a way out ¬¬– prisoners of their own social structures.

I like to use real objects like a fridge, a telephone or a bed to challenge my choreographic research. This is a piece about us, our life, our way of living, about the banal activities and the simplicity of things. I want to show the beauty of ordinary objects, a beauty we no longer see. Our reality becomes a dream. This piece started with our passion for movies and their stars. We decided to become our own hereos, imperfect, ugly and as beautiful as we can possibly be. I was especially inspired by Luis Bunels / Salvador Dalis »Un Chien Andalou« and Jean-Luc Godard`s »A Bout de Souffle« (Breathless).

Together with Sasha Waltz, 20 female dancers engage in rituals of femininity and explore the body images associated with them. What happens when women come together and form alliances? And how can our knowledge of the past inform the development of new feminist movements which move beyond a battle of the sexes? Inspired in part by Judy Chicago’s iconic work »The Dinner Party« (1979, Brooklyn Museum, New York), Sasha Waltz is working for the first time with an all-woman ensemble. In Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s St. Elisabeth Church, the live performance interacts with one of Berlin’s architectural icons, as do the dancers with the audience to create an immersive experience of space.

Zuhören #4
Climate change & democracy
From complexity to action

The fourth edition of »Zuhören – Dritter Raum für Kunst und Politik«, which Sasha Waltz & Guests reopens, seeks new and current challenges: After three editions in 2016 and 2017 dealing with active listening, migration and committed communities, the focus is now on the pressing issues of climate and democracy change. For a weekend at the radialsystem, Sasha Waltz & Guests invites people to get in touch with local initiatives, the company's network and international guests. Exchanging ideas, learning new things together and questioning the old: In a collective process that appeals to the head, heart and feet, different perspectives on our complex present will be in the focus – in order to act together right now!
Workshops, discussions and interventions are accompanied by dance, music and shared food. A weekend of empathy, enjoyable learning and participation. For new connections beyond the borders of art, science, politics, philosophy and civil society!
 
Program

Friday, 13 December, from 7 pm

As an introduction to the complex topic of climate change, US-American director Josh Fox opens »Zuhören #4« on Friday evening with his solo lecture performance »The Truth Has Changed«. His personal view of the topic will then be expanded with perspectives from marine biologist Prof. Dr. Anke Boetius, a voice from the Global South and a representative of the »Fridays for Future« movement. The evening ends with a Late Night Concert: Joseph Houston (piano) and Sarah Saviet (violin) examine the interface between music and nature on the basis of selected compositions – accompanied by unusual sound bodies, beyond the classical concert situation.


Saturday, 14 December, from 2 pm

Saturday will be marked by energy and impetus: After a warm-up during a joint Dabke Community Dance with Medhat Aldaabal and Ali Hasan, various initiatives will offer workshops on the subject of climate change and action. Linked to dance, the program starts with art and body, but deliberately opens up to nutrition, the connection between personal development and structural change, business and empowerment: »How artistic can political activism be?« asks Josh Fox. »What does sustainable food management look like?« shows Restlos Glücklich. »How can resistance be experienced physically?« – a theme for Extinction Rebellion and Amazonas Solidarity Berlin.

The dinner together leads into the second part of the day: With the dance piece »Teqsi muyu marq'ay - A Warm Embrace for the Earth«, the teens group of the children's dance company of Sasha Waltz & Guests presents their artistic confrontation with climate change and climate justice in the context of indigenous peoples and their values. The young dancers thus open the space for a subsequent discussion with the philosopher Andreas Weber and dancer-choreographer Luz Zenaida Hualpa García on the subject of »indigenousity«. At the subsequent party with DJ, the circle closes with a joint dance.

»FutureLeaks« invites you to rewrite the future on Saturday and Sunday in a immersive parcours. The hall of the radialsystem transforms over the three days into a place of exchange and shared food – the initiative »Restlos Glücklich« together with the public serves »rescued« foods in tastefully creative preparation.


Sunday, 15 December, from 2pm

Im Angesicht komplexer Krisen in unserer globalisierten Welt empfinden Menschen weltweit ein Gefühl der Ohnmacht. Gleichzeitig wächst ziviles Engagement, um in die Tat zu kommen. Welche Rolle spielen das Zuhören und der Dialog für die Weiterentwicklung der Demokratie und des lokalen wie globalen Miteinanders? Diesen und weiteren Fragen widmet sich der dritte und letzte Tag von »Zuhören #4«. Nach dem gemeinsamen Warm-Up »Collective Intelligence in motion« mit Gabriel Galindez Cruz folgt ein Gespräch in Zusammenarbeit mit »Das Progressive Zentrum« und Gästen wie Lex Paulson & Bernard Le Roux (School of Collective Intelligence, Marokko), Maria Exner (Zeit Online – »Deutschland spricht«) und Maja Göpel (Expertin für Klimapolitik). Gemeinsam mit einem Gründungsmitglied des World Human Forums Delphi beschäftigt sich das Publikum spielerisch mit den 17 UN-Nachhaltigkeitszielen.
Musik und Tanz bringen Rhythmus in den Tag. Der Tänzer und Choreograph Sergiu Matis führt in seiner performativen Soundinstallation »Extinction Room» sehr eindrücklich das Artensterben vor Augen. Mit gemeinsamem Essen und einer kollektiven Tanzimprovisation in der großen Halle des Radialsystems endet »Zuhören #4« in Bewegung.
By facing complex crises in our globalized world, people all over the world feel powerless. At the same time, civil commitment is growing: the people are actively involved. What role do listening and dialogue play in the further development of democracy and local and global cooperation? The third and last day of »Zuhören #4« is dedicated to these and other questions. The warm-up »Collective Intelligence in motion« with Gabriel Galindez Cruz will be followed by a discussion in collaboration with »Das Progressive Zentrum« and guests such as Lex Paulson & Bernard Le Roux (School of Collective Intelligence, Morocco), Maria Exner (Zeit Online – »Deutschland spricht«) and Maja Göpel (climate policy expert). Together with a founding member of the World Human Forum Delphi, the audience playfully explores the 17 UN sustainability goals. Music and dance bring rhythm into the day. In his performative sound installation »Extinction Room«, dancer and choreographer Sergiu Matis impressively demonstrates the extinction of species. With a meal together and a collective dance improvisation in the hall of the radialsystem, the end of »Zuhören #4« is movement.
 

Sasha Waltz & Guests are taking »ZUHÖREN« forward: the third edition will take place between November 24 and 26 2017 at Radialsystem V. Once again, »ZUHÖREN« will open up a space at the intersection of art and politics, private and public combining a program of films, dance, concerts, workshops, audiovisual installations, shared meals and conversations intended to bring about inspirational exchanges. The company will present artists and activists from the Middle East, the United States, Brazil and Berlin, whose work presents forms of artistic resistance, contributing in unique ways to the creation and strengthening of new, diverse communities: with Hiwa K and Rick Lowe, choreographers Lia Rodrigues and Modjgan Hashemian, #NDAPL-activist Floris White Bull, the documentary filmmakers Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi and the curator of the ifa- Galerie Berlin Alya Sebti. Also participating are the Berlin-based initiatives »Baynetna – Between Us, German-Arabic Library«, »Women for Common Spaces«, »The Space Berlin e.V.« and »The Poetry Project«. Key themes throughout this edition of »ZUHÖREN« are women’s political and creative engagement for future generations, and peaceful struggle in new alliances. These themes are taken up in the conversations and presentations, but also appear in the dance and music events.
»ZUHÖREN – Third Space for Art and Politics« is supported in 2017 by the Robert Bosch Foundation

»Continu« (2010) for 21 dancers can be considered Sasha Waltz’ most expressive work.
The epochal orchestral work »Arcana« (1927) by Edgard Varèse represents its musical core. Thematically, „Continu“ showcases the conflictual relationship between individuals and a group or society. In light of the recent events and experiences concerning flight, migration and the diversity of cultural identities, new ways of perceiving this piece unfold. There will be a space for exchange while eating together, which can be visited before and after the shows.

The company Sasha Waltz & Guests works with people from all over the world and receives a lot of hospitality on their tours. Sasha Waltz takes the shows of »Continu« and the highly relevant topics of refugees and social activism as an opportunity to invite guests from the Middle East, the Mediterranean area and Germany. The motto of these encounters is »ZUHÖREN« (»Listening«): enabling dialogue and exchange on artistic strategies and interventions with regards to the political and humanitarian conflicts, the situation of women and model initiatives in the arts, media and everyday life.

Friday 5 February 2016
How do artists deal with major crises and an increase in violence? The guests will present their current projects in pho- tography and music, followed by a discussion.
Herlinde Koelbl, a German fine art photographer, will present her internationally acclaimed project »Targets«. She spent six years traveling through 30 countries to document military training sites and targets characteristic of the various countries. How are the images of the enemy constructed?
Karim Wasfi, an Iraqi cellist and conductor, gives an account of his work of many years as an artist and educator leading the »Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra«, of his way of dealing with attacks in the city, and of how the »Karim Wasfi Center for Creativity – Peace Through Arts« was founded.
Stéphan Talneau, French filmdirector, has been creating portraits of international musicians working in Berlin since 2008 in his series »Berliner-Moment«. The preview of his most recent film, in cooperation with Laurent Latappy, features the Arab music group »Orphe«. Presentation: Georg Diez, journalist and author
To be followed by the installation with food, live music and DJ.

Saturday 6 February 2016
Historically Georgia is a Christian country located between Russia and the Muslim Middle East. It was the setting of many violent confrontations during the 20th century. How do artists deal with this geographic position and history? The encounter of the Georgian artists starts out from a shared interest in women’s activism and a passion for stories.
Keti Dolidze, a Georgian actress and the director of the »GIFT Tiflis« festival, founded the »Women’s International White Scarf Movement« during the Georgian civil war in the 1990s.
Nino Haratishvili, a Georgian author and director, lives in Germany. Her epic family saga, »The Eighth Life (For Brilka)« makes it possible to experience the 20th century history of Georgia through the fate of four generations of women. Salomé Jashi, Georgian documentary filmmaker und supporter of the development of a documentary film scene in South Caucasus portrays the region and its people and stories – even to the most remote places.
Gesprächsführung: Jutta Schwengsbier, International Correspondents Media Network
To be followed by the performance of »Continu« and the installation with food, live music and DJ.

Tuesday 9 February 2016
»ZUHÖREN« will conclude with a discussion focusing on Syria.
Yasmine Merei is a journalist, linguist and human rights activist born in Homs, Syria. She is managing editor of »Sayyidat Souria« (»The Lady of Syria«), the first non-religious women’s magazine in Syria, which aims to give a voice and a platform to a new generation of Syrian women.
Carolin Emcke is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. She writes and talks about subjects such as globalization, war, human rights, theories of violence, bearing witness and cultural identities.
Mohammad Al Attar is a Syrian playwright and dramaturge. His last piece »Antigone of Shatila« (2015) tells the Greek story out of the perspective of Syrian women seeking refuge in Lebanon.
MiCT (Media in Cooperation and Transition) will present »Start FM«: a radio station focusing on culture and information in Arabic for refugees and migrants. A pilot program with guests and live music realized by MiCT – Media in Cooperation and Transition.
Presentation: Christian Mihr, Reporters Without Borders
To be followed by the installation with food, live music and DJ; Documentary film »Not Who We Are« by Carol Mansour (Lebanon).

With the latest incarnation of »ZUHÖREN«, Sasha Waltz & Guests opens up a »third dimension« for art and policy on June 18 and 19, 2016. The program starts out from improvisations with company dancers and various musicians, such as Burak Özdemir, Michael Rauter, Bob Rutman, Grégoire Simon and Robyn Schulkowsky.
In view of the current situation of war, terrorism, refugees and the need for civic engagement, Sasha Waltz invites international artists, journalists, human rights activists and politicians to enter into dialogue with one another in the course of three discussions on the topics of film, writing and political participation. What artistic and journalistic strategies do we have at our disposal to exert political influence? Yasmine Merei, a Syrian journalist and human rights activist, will curate and moderate the discussions.

Aufgrund der großen positiven Resonanz wird das Programm am 18. und 19. Juni 2016 fortgesetzt. Diesmal werden die Gespräche kombiniert mit »Improvisationen« von Tänzern der Compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests und mit Live-Musik auf der großen Bühne. Sasha Waltz kuratiert die Gesprächsrunden gemeinsam mit der syrischen Journalistin und Menschenrechtsaktivistin Yasmine Merei.

United Germany: »Zweiland« (Twin Lands). Like Siamese twins joined as one yet divided. In her co-production with the 47th Berliner Festspiele – the theme being »Deutschlandbilder« (Images of Germany) – Sasha Waltz comes upon a parable embodying this paradox in the multifarious universe that is movement. She melds the territories of two bodies into an archaic mythical creature incorporating two arms, four legs, one head and two bellies, in living-breathing interdependence. Discordant unity. The material that the double (Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola and Nicola Mascia) appears to drag from its mouth, as to throw out a net in response to weakening calls for help, is viscid as cobwebs in Indian Summer. A third figure who wishes to shake the monster’s hand, sticks fast to it, tears the twin-ego apart, and is thus caught up in the maelstrom of a bodily chain-reaction: headfirst, then head over heals, levering and coupling, the trio is interlocked and weightless in a world of manipulations and dark machinations. Cause and effect become one.
Zweiland – Impressions by Irene Sieben