Ballett am Rhein

Compagnie 2023/24

Since the beginning of the 2020/21 season, the German-Argentinian Demis Volpi has been Ballet Director and Principal Choreographer of the Ballett am Rhein. Along with him, 45 international dancers from a broad range of artistic backgrounds make up a team devoted to dialogue between equals and have given the company a new profile with a strong commitment to communication with the audience. The Ballett am Rhein has a long history of intense creativity in dance and powerful artistic signatures. For a new directorate, engaging with this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Demis Volpi’s team is keen to acknowledge these traditions, forge links with them, extend their thinking and add fresh impulses in order to give the Ballett am Rhein a strong, new direction of movement.

The new directorate is underpinned by three core concepts. A lively engagement with tradition nourishes innovation. Maintaining and evolving the traditional repertoire and illuminating it from a contemporary perspective is an important constant in the Ballett am Rhein’s work. Choreographers such as Hans van Manen, who have had a formative influence over the company’s dance language for a long period, will continue to remain significant elements of a programme that will also be enriched by other influential styles such as those of Twyla Tharp and Roland Petit. At the same time, these established artistic positions will be juxtaposed with contemporary choreographic vocabularies such as those of Sharon Eyal, Andrey Kaydanovskiy and Aszure Barton, in order to examine their similarities and differences.

Scene from „Carmen“

The second core concept is based on storytelling. Demis Volpi is well known for his new vision of narrative ballet and also looks for passionate stories among the younger generation of choreographers. Turning works from the theatre, from literature and poetry into dance will occupy a new, central position in the Ballett am Rhein’s programme.

Scene from „Der Nussknacker“

The third core concept looks to the future. Within the company but also beyond it, among the independent dance scene and in other institutions, a new generation of artists is waiting to play its part in shaping the future of dance. This ambition should not be a peripheral phenomenon limited to its own format, but an integral part of the programme. So, for example, for his production of ‘The Nutcracker’, Demis Volpi invited both dancers from the company and two choreographers from the urban dance collective nutrospektif to choreograph their own scenes.

In addition to preserving and developing existing works and established artists, the Ballett am Rhein should also be a nucleus of new ideas. A place where bold experiments can turn into innovation.

In 2020 Ballet Director Demis Volpi set up a new department for outreach: “Tanz mit!” wishes to promote dance in all its forms, to fill more people with a passion for dance and also to increase opportunities within the Ballett am Rhein.

„Leichter getanzt als gesagt“