Don’t be afraid to surpass your limits! My creative work is based on instinct, thought process, and the need to communicate. I feed off the environment around me, the artists I work together with. I create a set of rules in the beginning, but I allow those rules to be changed, depending on the infl uence of the situation and the artists. Making rules to break rules meaning to allow oneself to be fl exible and to remain open. MARGUERITE DONLON
Marguerite Donlon is director of the Ballett des Saarländischen Staatstheaters, situated on the periphery and therefore all the more centre of innovation, simply because nothing like it has come from the centres in years. The cheeky Irish choreographer is tearing down the barriers between dance styles right in the midst of an institution, throwing the antagonism ballet versus dance ad-absurdum and bringing the “man from the street” back into the theatre. Her work is far from all artistic ideology and simply incapable of boring her audience. The bridging the gap between classic and comic, avant-garde and Grand Guignol is so much fun, that the fans of this former Peter Schaufuss and Deutsche Oper Berlin dancer, accuse her of: making her pieces too short. This is no ballet mouse turned choreographer, but healthy common sense gone over into a humourattack on a profession that is usually not very detached from its own craft. That she’s no lone fi ghter in Saarbrücken, but invites the most interesting choreographers to a double evening, therefore feels more like a match and not like a gala for the rejuvenation of ballet. ARND WESEMANN
