Hamburg: the lesson of John Neumeier

There are few dance companies that can boast identity traits intimately connected with those who have been their directors for over ten decades. This is the case, rare and peculiar, of the Hamburg Ballet and the perspective imprinted by John Neumeier: a name of reference in twentieth-century choreography who, as Artistic Director and Chief Choreographer from 1973 to 2024, donated aesthetics, profiles and repertoire to the famous German 'troupe', defining a heritage of considerable size and preciousness.

This richness is also addressed during one of the most eagerly awaited rituals for dance enthusiasts in the northern German city, the 'Hamburger Ballett-Tage' festival that traditionally closes the seasons here in Hamburg. A festival that for the current edition, celebrating its 50th anniversary, prefers John Neumeier's 'The Little Mermaid' to the initially announced creations - 'Surrogate Cities' and 'Demian' by Demis Volpi. A work created in 2005 for the Royal Danish Ballet on the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of the poet Hans Christian Andersen, it arrived in Hamburg two years later and was dedicated to Queen Margaret II of Denmark.

Two and a half hours that skilfully summarise in such a rare title for the choreographic stage the most recognisable peculiarities of one of the choreographers counted among the names most gifted with fertile dramaturgical sensitivity. With this unusual love story, the brushstrokes Neumeier proposes are, in fact, authentic 'metaphysical descriptions of desire' - as he himself described Andersen's tale in an interview with André Podschun. A desire nourished and stubbornly oriented towards the discovery of an unknown world grasped solely through the vigour of love: on this stands the very solid architecture of the 'Little Mermaid' imagined by the Wisconsin-born choreographer. Among the work's many merits, only the fragment of the metamorphosis of the protagonist in the first act is worth mentioning: here one must recognise the fruit of a true experimentation in dance that, thanks to a dense symbiosis of movements, music and dramaturgy, presents itself as a valid lesson in choreography.

An extremely difficult subject for a dance performance such as to test even the multiple possibilities of expression of the art of Tersicore and which the Hamburg master convincingly overcomes also thanks to some fertile references taken from Japanese theatre here rethought and modelled on the evocative score by Lera Auerbach. In addition to the aforementioned value of the work in this "opening night" we will certainly not forget the poetic expressiveness of Xue Lin engaged with the mutations of the protagonist, the evocative lyricism of Lennard Giesenberg in the role of the Poet and the dashing charm of Matias Oberlin's Prince.

After the five performances in July, the show, which also bears John Neumeier's signature for set design, costumes, lighting and staging, will return before Christmas, again in Germany, in a period that will also be a true homage to the founder of the 'new Hamburg dramaturgy': in addition to his 'Little Mermaid', from October to December, 'Nijinsky', 'Epilog', 'Die Kameliendame' and the unmissable 'Nutcracker' will be revived.