Premiere

Minus 16

Summary

Choreographies by Sharon Eyal and Ohad Naharin

Ballet and dance companies worldwide collaborate with Ohad Naharin. The Israeli choreographer has been a prominent figure in the dance world for many years. He developed a new approach to movement with his company, the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. The approach demands a personal touch from the dancers and is known as the Gaga method. The method requires complete openness to embrace movement material beyond steps and musicality. Naharin's half-hour piece Minus 16 is a lively choreography performed by a large ensemble. The dancers move with exuberant joy and acrobatic boldness to the sounds of popular Cuban and Israeli music. The piece premiered at Nederlands Dans Theater II in 1999 and has since been a celebration of the joy of dance and joie de vivre that captivates both dancers and audiences.

SAABA is the fourth work by internationally acclaimed choreographer Sharon Eyal to be presented by the Staatsballett Berlin. Another and completely new one of her mysterious universes unfolds in an unmistakable manner. This time, composer Ori Lichtik skillfully weaves pop into the musical composition, which alternates between genres. Sharon Eyal‘s unmistakable style of hypnotic, pulsating power also unleashes its full effect in this sound spectrum.

During the performance, sudden and intense sound effects will be triggered, which may exceed a usual level.

Autograph session in the foyer
During the intermission, dancers of the Staatsballett Berlin will sign your programme booklets and ensemble brochures at the information table of the Friends & Supporters of the Staatsballett Berlin in the Parkettfoyer.

21.11. Anthony Tette & Dominic Whitbrook
24.11. Gregor Glocke & Cameron Hunter (3pm)
24.11. Vivian Assal Koohnavard & Ross Martinson (7pm)
29.11. Eloïse Sacilotto & Fiona McGee

Videos / Trailer

No further performances this season.

Info

Deutsche Oper Berlin
Introduction 45 minutes before curtain.

«Mystery and fragility, mature awareness and the ability to dream»

Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of Women's Collections for Dior

I became acquainted with Sharon Eyal’s work through Carlo Fuortes when he was director of the Rome Opera.

Our collaboration began when I presented my collection dedicated to dance – the Spring-Summer 2019 ready-to-wear collection shown in Paris in September 2018. I am really fascinated by dance—it engages me in all its expressions. It is simultaneously a liberating act and one that demands great discipline.

From the very start, my partnership with Sharon was characterised by our shared views and intentions. From that moment on, we built a rapport of respect and friendship, which has grown over time as we got to know each other. This has led to a genuine, deep bond and has resulted in many other opportunities to work together, both to present some of my collections and for Sharon’s artistic projects. In her poetics there is a deep connection that unites mystery and fragility, mature awareness and the ability to dream. It was the movement between these extremes that drew me in, a movement sharpened through a beauty defined by many layers, many levels, which can become even disturbing, oblique, less pacifying than it is a cause for reflection. A beauty transformed by time and the intensity of emotions.

Just as I do in fashion, Sharon Eyal celebrates the body in all its strength and suppleness, building relationships and creating atmospheres. So for SAABA, Sharon’s project for the Göteborg Opera in Sweden, I designed skintight flesh-coloured jumpsuits, in which the consistency could almost give way and morph into Dior lace, and then into rips, tears, stretches, into an evanescent materiality that reflects the idea of a beauty both delicate and strong, imperfect and therefore poetic.