A rush for the senses

An homage to the artistic lightness of ballet – and an exploratory journey through the modern world of dance.

 

When sounds evoke vivid pictures in the imagination and movements unveil hidden emotions transforming both the dramatic and the comical into an intoxicating spectacle, then we’re talking about ballet. At the latest since Hollywood discovered the world of ballet with the Oscar-nominated film Black Swan, classic ballet and contemporary dance theatre are back in vogue. Dance – the movement to music – is one of the most primeval forms of human expression. Dance may even be one of the oldest forms of human civilisation.

Admittedly, there is an enormous range of dance out there – as a way of just passing the time, as ritualised dance or as a form of art. The latter underwent constant reinvention over the centuries, and what we call classical ballet today is the classical repertory ballet in the Russian tradition, complete with white tutus and grand orchestral music – ballet as exemplified by Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. But even this classical ballet’s changing. And it has changed enormously at the latest since Pina Bausch began reinventing the world of dance from her base in Wuppertal back in the 1970s. In her productions, it was allowed to speak and to sing, to laugh and to cry. It was a revolution that did not destroy the traditional but rather rediscovered its soul by giving our yearning for love, closeness and security a dance-like face. The Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch dance company performs around the world, appearing on stages as far away as Australia, as well as in Paris, London and New York. And, of course, in Wuppertal.

Berlin State Ballet

The company was founded in 2004 through the unification of the ballet ensembles of Berlin’s three opera houses.

 

STAY | Vienna House Andel’s Berlin | Vienna House Easy Berlin

 

Bucharest National Opera House

Polish dancer Anton Romanovski founded Romania’s first ballet company in 1924. The company successfully established itself among the best in the world.

 

STAY | Vienna House Easy Airport Bucharest

 

The Krakow Opera

The ensemble was founded in 1954. In 2009, it established its residency in the new opera house about one kilometer from old town.

 

STAY | Vienna House Andel’s Cracow | Vienna House Easy Cracow

 

Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theare

The company, directed by Viacheslav Samodurov, is one of Russia’s leading ensembles after Moscow’s Bolshoi and St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky.

 

STAY | angelo by Vienna House Ekaterinburg

 

Tanztheater Wuppertal

This is where Pina Baush’s emotionally evocative dance revolution started. And it lives on in her dance company, today directed by Bausch’s collaborator Lutz Förster.

 

STAY | Vienna House Easy Wuppertal