Future Choreography: an evening of new work by and with the Badisches Staatsballett

Staatstheater, Karlsruhe
July 20, 2023

The Badisches Staatstheater has long encouraged its dancers to test their creativity in their own choreography. This year’s Future Choreography (Zukunft Choreographie) programme saw nine company members grab the opportunity. In front of a warm and enthusiastic audience in the approximately 350-seat Klienes Haus, it was a typically varied evening of work that ranged from out-and-out classical ballet to experimental dance theatre. Certainly one full of interesting ideas, even if some were not quite fully realised yet.

Bookending the programme were two classical works, both to well-known piano concertos. Danced to Tchaikovsky’s deeply expressive and sublimely romantic Piano Concerto No.1, José Urrutia’s By Tchaikovsky was a pleasant pas de trois for Olgert Collaku, Balkiya Zhanburchinova and Sara Zinna. It was at its best in the quieter moments, the music elsewhere tending to overpower the dance.

The closing Blossom by João Miranda the final movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 was a joy. In their blue dresses and black chokers, the women looked a little like Degas dancers. But far from being a picture from history, the choreography felt bright and fresh without losing touch with tradition. A real celebration of classical technique, it was a fine way to round off the evening.

There was much to admire in between too. Joshua Swain’s Unknown Quantity to music by Sigur Rós took into feelings that make us afraid to venture into the unknown. Much of the movement of the five dancers seemed to be initiated by something deep inside. While a second section had a very different tempo, the choreographic connections were evident.

Fusing live action and film can be a tricky business but Baris Comak hit the mark with RÜYA just a bit more, which mixes video of Kevin O’Day, the Staatsballett resident choreographer, with his onstage dance dreams (‘rüya‘ means ‘dream’ in Turkish), embodied by Carolin Steitz and Joshua Swain. The opening and closing film of O’Day sitting with a coffee on a park bench, then later waking up after dozing off were very cinematic, setting the context then closing the piece perfectly. I’m less convinced about the middle section that saw him dancing to himself on a woodland path and in a birdwatching hide, though. The live dance, a little bit playful with a hint of jazz, flowed naturally and was over all too quickly.

Steitz turned choreographer for In Remember?, a tribute to colleagues and something of an homage to them and the past before life opens new paths for her. Friendship and memories were very much to the fore. In very classical vein, and danced by Momoka Kikuchi, João Miranda, Pablo Octávio and Steitz herself, the dance had a  beautiful wistful sense, especially when the performers appear in duets. It was quite lovely.

Human encounters was a recurring theme in the nine works and cropped up again in Ambivalence by Balkiya Zhanburchinova, a piece for six dancers to music by Philip Glass. While generally pleasing, it was also sometimes too busy with were too much going on.

Although one of those works that needed a little more development in the studio, there was much to admire too in Blumen (Flowers) by Valentin Juteau, which used flowers in a vase as it looked at how we deal with time together running out and the loss of a loved one.

The Difference Is You by Francesca Berruto considered how we influence the word around us consciously and subconsciously, sometimes in small, subtle ways. Personal encounters were again prominent. It was a good watch, although the first two sections, to music from Bartók string quartets, felt like a different piece to the third, to Dinah Washington’s song ‘What a difference a day makes.’

Most difficult was Louiz Rodrigues’ very dark What have we got?, to a hard-on-the-ear new composition by singer-songwriter Paul Calderone. Inspired by personal stories told by the four dancers to each other, it looked at what we are left with when all external influences and status symbols lose their importance. But the idea got rather lost in translation, sadly. It was difficult to decipher intent and meaning. Presumably the four semi-naked bodies is what remains, the clothes and material that fall from above and that are put on and taken off, being the symbols. It was at its best when dance takes over from concept towards the end.