We are on the road now. Saturday we left Kassel (Cassel) by train at 11am and were excited to use the Eurostar from Brussels to London. We almost forgot our passports that we need now after Brexit. Thankfully a colleage from Nils reminded us…we didn’t even thought about it. We are so used to travel in Europe without any borders.
Using the Eurostar ment a security check just like at an airport, but it’s 13 times more efficient than flying. We arrived arround 8 pm Greenwitch time at the stunning St. Pancras tinternational train station.
This time we spent to nights in Notting Hill, which is a lovely neigborhood, and saw a “Macbeth” production at the famous Globe Theatre. Today we took the train from London to Plymouth and the 3 hour chat with two locals was our highlight of the day. Magret even invited us and another guy for coffee. She was so very happy when the Trolley. Plymouth is a lovely harbour town! People emigrated to Australia and New Zealand from here.
Globe Theatre
Who needs a smart phone
The famous Padfington Bear abd me waiting for the train…
I hopped on a train last week to check out Metz. Mannheim is situated close to the border of France and i was up for a little trip. Metz surprised me as a quiet green city with a lovely old town center an two beautiful churches.
The absolute highlight is the new Centre Pompidou Metz that opened in 2010. I spent an afternoon there and really enjoyed the four exhibitions at display. Besides the café serves fresh salats and great coffee! The food was way better then what i had for dinner the night before in a fancy restaurant next to the cathedral.
Be prepared to spent quiet some time to find a nice hotel. That is always a problem in France. I also thought about spending time in Le Havre, but the harbor town was fully booked (in terms of what i was willing to pay…).
Coucou: my first season with the Dance Company in Mannheim is done. Summer break! Since I only have a two-year contract (parental leave replacement), that means half of my time is over. I am happy every week that I have accepted this job and can work as a dance dramaturg finally. Sure, I also had some very difficult moments this season, but that’s ok. This job is just as fun as working at the ice cream store on the Halifax waterfront with the difference that this time I’m in my field and not only the fun factor but also the challenges are great.
To give you an idea what I do I have selected a few pics. We have 16 dancers and produced six new productions this season. That basically means that we presented a new show every six weeks (more or less). Each new show requires comparable tasks: I need to take care of the music rights (contracts take forever with big labels!), accompany the rehearsals, conduct interviews to write texts for the program booklet, do the press work (send press invitations, think about what I want on the posters, write newsletters), redesign our entrance area for the next premiere, view the photos of the rehearsals of our photographers and select what we want to use and a lot of other tasks…it’s a little crazy, but I never get bored.
entrance area with pics for the show “Kosmos schwerelos”Audience enjoying a glass of wine before show at our venue NTM TanzhausThe moment when my 1000 copies of program booklets arrive and I wonder if I find the first spelling misttake right away…thses booklet are really a lot of work! entrance area with pics for the show “Rhythm under the skin”looking at final pic selection for the booklet of “Fire & Moon”Me at the theater in Heilbronn. We are on tour there once or twice each season and I give 10 minute introductions before the show about the piece and the production process. Dramatug in action so to speak.
Some days you find that rain is dripping through the roof into the dance hall or that the boss’s dog (named Balu) has locked itself in the elevator or beer bottles have exploded in the freezer…I deal with that too or just laugh out loud and close the freezer door. It’s great to have colleauges again. So much more fun than working from home like I did during the pandemic.
Balu loves to hang out with us in the office…sometimes he wonders when we will stop working these long hours…
We even opened a new theater venue and had to deal a lot with the national press arround the question do we present Marco Goeckes work or not after the scandal in Hannover…that really was my most difficult month ever (yet) working for a theater. Stephan Thoss canceled Goeckes part at the end to protect the work of the company.
I also took one business trip to Hamburg for the anniversary gala of John Neumeier, who has been working there for 50 years. Funny enough, the very first choreography (titled “My way”) by my boss Stephan Thoss was chosen by John Neumeier for a gala contribution by the Jugendballett Hamburg. A piece of dance history that I did not want to miss. Stephan was not happy that they wanted to show this old choreography, but you can’t say no really, if John Neumeier is asking you for a contribution to such a gala and I really liked it that creation by him and was glad to see it on stage.
The stage at the new venue Altes Kino Franklin (old cinema Franklin)Our staff in action – stage set of “The little men”, part of our show “Young Lovers”Here you can see the choreografer Nadav Zelner checking and discussing the costumes for his part “Well done”, part of the show “Young Lovers”. Magic moment when you see the set, costumes and light first time on stage. We had so much fun.
During my last working week we had no phone and internet service at the Tanzhaus and it drove me nuts, because I had so much work to do… next season we will produce seven shows and I already wonder how I will survive.
Last but not least moments I also liked this season: hanging out the cast for the next show and dancers checking it or Stephan Thoss building seating furniture for our team, so we can eat outside and enjoy the sun. I also had the idea to do a BBQ for the team on our final saturday show. After we had 30 degrees for weeks, it thundered and rained heavily on this one evening in Mannheim. We had to wait with the barbecue until the worst was over and set up the beer benches inside. The dancers were already half starved when there was finally something to eat on there plates. 🙂
dancers checking the castPaloma smiling into my camera. Cheers to this season 2022/23. What a ride!
What’s happening in the rest of the world? Have a great summer you all! Hopefully not to hot and without wild fires. I will report soon from Metz and Newquay. We have signed up to learn to surf.
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