The Hamburg Ballet is over 200 years old and one of the grand institutions of Europe. When it takes the stage at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre on Sunday, it will be the first time the company has appeared in Australia.
Directed for the past 40 years by artistic director John Neumeier, the company has become one of the world’s best.
Neumeier is the world’s longest serving artistic director, next to Alicia Alonso of Ballet Nacional de Cuba. In a last minute phone interview squeezed between a press conference and rehearsals, the very busy Neumeier admits that he never intended to remain this long. “I still don’t,” he laughs.
Neumeier relates his main reason for staying to the concept of “movement”, also the focus of a collection of his essays called, In Movement. “Although I have been in Hamburg almost 40 years, I still feel that I am ‘in movement’ because not only does the Hamburg Ballet tour a lot, but I also work in many different companies around the world.
“This idea of moving is extremely important for me, not only moving outside of the city but moving inside; the fact that we now have a building (housing the company and the school) with nine studios and a dormitory – this is unique – but it did not happen like a fairy tale. It happened because I worked, we worked, very hard. The season that we’ve started with the national youth company, with financial aid from the (German) Federal Government, this is another dream of mine. So if I ever felt that I was quite comfortable here, I would start quite seriously to look around.”
This is an edited extract from an article on the Hamburg Ballet by Denise Richardson in the Aug/Sep issue of Dance Australia. OUT NOW!