Dance in Germany – Festivals, Exhibitions, Book Tips

Every three years the Theater of the World Festival stops over at another German city. In 2010 it will take place in Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr. Program director Frie Leysen will bring avant gardists and border crossers between the disciplines to the Ruhr region in order to dispel clichés and practice contemporaneity.

“It’s a one-shot festival.” The image that Leysen chooses to describe the uniqueness of the 2010 festival is drastic and succinct. As a “flying festival”, it takes place every three years in another city, always accompanied by a new team. Thus Germany’s most important international theater festival makes a new beginning each time it occurs. It is sponsored by the German Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI) and the given city and federal state. Last time it took place was in 2008 in Halle, under the program director Thorsten Maß. For the project European Capital of Culture RUHR 2010 the festival has now been moved ahead one year. The artistic directors of the hosting theaters have as usual been appointed its artistic directors: Roberto Ciulli of the Mülheim Theater an der Ruhr and Anselm Weber of the Schauspiel Essen. But despite all the interest groups sitting in the boat, Frie Leysen insists on independence. The Belgian is the first international curator of the program. Her concept sets strong guidelines: she wants to show not only theater but also all the arts. “It’s impossible to draw clear dividing lines between, for example, dance, theater and opera. In contemporary art the disciplines are so closely interwoven that it’s somewhat old-fashioned to maintain the borders between genres.” She wants to invite neither mainstream nor classic art, but solely contemporary art.

Conflicts in the borderland

In conversation the art historian comes across as both a charismatic and decisive, is both critical and uncompromising. The idea of “border” and “limits” seems to be formative for her work. When in 1994 she founded the KunstenFestivaldesArts (KFDA) in Brussels, this was for her an artistic and political intervention in the worsening conflict between the Flemish and Walloons. Today it is regarded as one of the most prestigious festivals for performing arts in Europe. In 2006 she left the KFDA, because the fifty-eight year-old Leysen thinks organizations should not grow old with their directors. In 2007 she was curator of the festival Meeting Points 5 in the Arab world. There she encountered her own limits and prejudices, for she noticed that non-European works are invariably seen through Euro-centric glasses: “For example, a veil worn on stage is always interpreted as a criticism of the suppression of women, even if that’s definitely not an issue in many Arab regions. It was the greatest shock for me to realize that. It’s important to perceive our own limitations and to deal with them”. Leysen would like to counter this colonialist and imperialist view of non-European cultures at the festival, which she envisions as a trip around the world. The encounter with artists from the Arab world, from Africa and Asia, could question and qualify prejudices: “At the festival you can see the beauty, intelligence and visions of people who are otherwise often presented only as oppressed or as terrorists”.

Room for artistic expression

Yet Leysen does not want to see her artists as national ambassadors: “I encounter artists who inspire me, whose urgency, intelligence and sensitivity I feel, and whom I’d like to present to the public. These artists don’t represent their country, their society or their culture; they represent only themselves”. She sees her role as a link between the artists and the public. And she has set her face against every kind of cultural-political instrumentalizing of artistic freedom – an ambitious undertaking with so big a festival and within the framework of the European Capital of Culture project. “I attempt to establish a no man’s land, a free space for artists where there is no political or economic pressure and no aesthetic dictates. For me the artists are the real center of the festival.”

Most of the program will consist of new productions with which Leysen will attempt to build bridges between the international and the local – for instance, by inviting artists to let themselves be inspired by the region in site-specific works. “The Berlin Group, for example, will develop a new play inspired by the Ruhr region, yet not only by it, but also in general by regions that have had to come to terms with loss.” And the opening production too is an experiment with the old and new continent: the German Baroque opera Montezuma by Carl-Heinrich Graun, which treats the Spanish invasion of Mexico. “We are working with a Mexican director who is working on this German opera about a Mexican theme. I’m really delighted about it.” In this and similar ways, the 2010 Theater of the World Festival intends to make connections across local and international borders, shake up clichés, unsettle ways of seeing things and create room for artistic expression: a big ambition and an attractive promise.