LIB
Piece by Alexander Ekman

Alexander Ekman is known for his fast-paced timing, witty humour and clever staging. Since 2006, he has devoted his time to creating choreographies all across the globe. Having been fascinated by the creations of hair artist Charlie Le Mindu, especially his Chewbacca costumes which completely wrap their wearers in long hair, Alexander Ekman worked with him for the first time in LIB. The piece (referring to ‹liberation›) would not be a work by Alexander Ekman, if it would not have a humorous note, the balleri¬na’s virtuosity meets bizarre obstacles.

HALF LIFE
Dance piece by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar
Music by Ori Lichtik

Sharon Eyal’s choreographies can be described as vibrant experiments on the border between precision and supposed excess, which seem to strike a chord with audience and dancers alike. The uncompromising Israeli choreographer has long since developed a very personal, unmistakable artistic signa¬ture and has taken the European dance stages by storm. Her piece Half Life, in the repertoire of the Staatsballett Berlin since 2018, discovers the field of tension between man and machine, collective and individual, techno and contemporary ballet. The hypnotic effect of this work is connected to the music created by Ori Lichtik during the choreographic process.

photos: Frank Schröder & Anna Agliardi

See the iconic Peaches at the Volksbühne!

Over the past 20 years, the musician and artist Peaches has designed a comprehensive work that focuses on music, performance and a multimedia drawing game. With her music she makes thousands dance in the clubs of the world and appropriates traditionally masculine connoted genres like rock, punk, heavy metal and rap. Her explicit lyrics about body images, gender trouble and social inequality read like postmodern poetry. As a master of uncompromising avant-garde popularization, she has made sex-positive feminism socially acceptable on the concert stages of the world.

With THERE’S ONLY ONE PEACH WITH THE HOLE IN THE MIDDLE, she creates a futuristic stage event with almost 40 musicians and performers. Inspired by the variety shows of the 70s LGBTIQ * icons like Bette Midler and Liza Minelli and with costumes by avant-garde hair and fashion designer Charlie Le Mindu, Peaches catapults her vision of the past, present and future of queer feminism to the big one Stage.

THE SECOND DETAIL is an analytical reference to the geometry of classical dance, pushing the dancers to their limits of balance and flexibility. While mastering complex movements, they are compelled to perceive themselves consciously in several perspectives within space. Despite this intellectual approach, THE SECOND DETAIL reaches the spectator in a direct and sensual way.

Alexander Ekman aims at creating works which the majority can connect to, exploring topics everybody can relate to, which both entertain and question the audience. For the first time he is working with the Staatsballett Berlin, creating a new work for the company’s female Principal Dancers and a male Soloist. The costumes are creations by hair artist Charlie Le Mindu that force the virtuosity of the ballerinas into bizarre situations.

The Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal is one of the protagonists of the contemporary dance scene and, with HALF LIFE, has developed a work of hypnotic effect in the field of tension between man and machine, between collective and individual, techno and contemporary ballet. The pull of this work also results from the music that Ori Lichtik created during the choreographic process.