Midnight Raga
choreography, costumes: Marco Goecke
music: Ravi Shankar, Etta James
light design: Udo Haberland
assistant to choreographer: Hedda Twiehaus
staging: Ludovico Pace
dramaturgy: Nadja Kadel
duration: 12’
premiere: Nederlands Dans Theater, 2017
As a rule, music is not at the beginning of Marco Goecke's work. In his duet, whose title refers to classical Indian music, it is different: the music of Ravi Shankar forms the starting point. Despite the inspiration in the Oriental Indian, which is also reflected in the heavy blue silk fabrics of the costumes, Goecke's very own nervous language of movement remains unmistakable.
Marco Goecke completed his ballet training at the Ballet Academy in Munich and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he received his diploma in 1995. This was followed by engagements at the Berlin State Opera and the Theater Hagen. At this theater, Goecke created his first choreography in 2000 and continued with several works with dancers from the Stuttgart Ballet and an invitation to the New York Choreographic Institute. In 2003 he won the Prix Dom Pérignon in Hamburg with „Blushing“ created for Stuttgart Ballet. From 2005, Goecke was appointed house choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet and in 2006 he created his first full evening ballet „Nutcracker“, which was later filmed for the ZDFtheaterkanal. From 2006 to 2012, Goecke also held the title of house choreographer at Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam. From the 2013, he became associate choreographer at the renowned Nederlands Dans Theater. Goecke explores the human movement spectrum, breaking down each gesture into its individual parts. In doing so, his works are full of thoughtful moments, but also strongly emotional. In addition to the microscopic view of the body, he provides psychological glimpses into the inner workings of the human being - including his own. The multiple award-winning choreographer has created a remarkable number of extraordinary world premieres in recent years. His body of work includes more than 60 choreographies, which are performed worldwide by major companies and are in the repertoire of Stuttgart Ballet, NDT, Paris Opera Ballet, Monte Carlo Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, Ballett Zürich and the Wiener Staatsballett, among others. For his creation „The Lover“ for Hanover Ballet, he was named Choreographer of the Year 2021 by the trade magazine TANZ. In 2022, Goecke was honored with the most important national award, the German Dance Prize.
Of Prophets and Puppets
choreography, set, sound editing, light: Martin Harriague
dramaturgy: Lucas Herrmann
costume design: Mieke Kockelkorn and Martin Harriague
costume assistance: Lara Regula
consulting puppet choreography: Caroline Kühner
puppet construction: Annie Onchalo
duration: 45’
premiere: Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, 2023
Between “Twitter thunderstorms” media-effective show appearances and dangerous false claims such as the nonexistence of climate change, Trump travestied our image of a global political figure in a particularly dazzling but also terrifying way. The title “Of Prophets and Puppets” alludes to an article of the same name in the British tabloid The Sun, published in the runup to the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York. At this climate summit, Greta Thunberg gave her important speech “How dare you” in which she ruthlessly dealt with the profit interests of the economy and its myth of eternal growth as well as a large number of political decision makers. This speech also cemented Thunberg’s standing as a political dissenter at a time when US President Trump openly denied climate change. This appeared surprisingly for many at the UN climate summit in New York. A TV camera captures the moment Trump walked past Thunberg, ignoring her as she glared at his every move. There has not been another encounter between the two since then. In a cross-genre mix of dance, drama and puppetry, French choreographer now makes up for this encounter by featuring Thunberg and Trump as guests on a talk show. It is therefore a fictional encounter between the two iconic people that never took place. The talk show forms the framework of the dance piece, so to speak. A pointed-tongued and egocentric presenter, who acts slightly schizophrenic and repeatedly struggles with the feasibility of his show, leads through the evening. This is a further framework of the dramaturgy of the piece, the self-reflective uncovering of the production method of a talk show using the means of choreography and dance theatre. In “Of Prophets and Puppets”, many representations are exaggerated and alienated to the point of surrealism. In doing so, the piece follows the basic idea of crossing artistic boundaries. The expressive possibilities of the dance are expanded through spoken language interweaving with puppetry. .
Martin Harriague was born in 1986 in Bayonne. He began his training in ballet and contemporary dance at the age of 19. His dance debut with Malandain Ballet Biarritz Junior was followed by engagements with Marseille National Ballet and with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel. As a dancer, Harriague has worked with major international choreographers such as Itzik Galili, Thierry Malandain, Emanuel Gat, Roy Assaf, Rami Be'er, Keren Levi, Frédéric Flamand, Thomas Noone, and many others. He debuted as a choreographer with KCDC and subsequently also worked for Ballet Biarritz, Scapino Ballet in Rotterdam or Company Project Sally in the Netherlands. For his choreographic works, he has received many important awards. Until 2021, Harriague was artist in residence at the Ballet Biarritz. He composes his own music for his creations. In his performances he deals with political themes by combining different art forms. .
Since it’s merging in 2014, the shared dance company of State Theatre Wiesbaden and State Theatre Darmstadt, stands for a diverse range of classical and contemporary dance productions. Since season 2020/21 Bruno Heynderickx directs the 28 dancer ensemble who produce each season an average of four programs by well-known choreographers such as Bryan Arias, Edward Clug, Eyal Dadon, Sharon Eyal, Marco Goecke, Damien Jalet, Ohad Naharin, Crystel Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Imre & Marne van Opstal... Next to its own productions, the company curates a guest performance program in which it presents the productions of a number of high-ranking guest companies as well as the work of promising upcoming dance professionals. .
The eyes can hardly follow the many twitches and changes that testify to the highest body control and precision. Marco Goecke's typical, oblique language of movement, which one may sometimes wonder how it is conveyed at all, is not difficult to recognize.
© Frankfurter Rundschau
