SOCIETY OF BALLET

Premiere: 2021, Hamburg, Kampnagel

The work explores how structures of hierarchy and discipline manifest and function in the bodies of ballet dancers and asks whether it is possible to see through the body of this dancer the situation in contemporary Russian society where ballet continues to create a façade of the state as it has done since imperial times. 
One of the tasks in rehearsing "Society of the Ballet" was to maintain the democratic framework of the work while addressing the theme of the totalitarian. 
To this day, in choreographic training around the world, the virtuosity, mastery and exceptional training of the ballet dancer's body suggest the experience of subjugation, oppression and objectification as indispensable. In Russia, this is particularly strong and is perceived as a sign of a good school and a norm. 
Against the backdrop of the emerging conservative turn, virtually any consideration that deviates from the canonical is not legalised at the state level; reaction to the contemporary agenda is not welcome and can even be prosecuted. Contemporary dance is still not institutionally represented in Russia; instead, a frontal image of the invented elitist reality of ballet with its unalterable laws has clung on for over 200 years.  Is it possible to recognise, through its deconstruction, those changes that inevitably take place in society despite everything?

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Concept: Anna Semenova-Ganz 

Choreography & dramaturgy: Anna Semenova-Ganz, Tatyana Tchizikova (Choreographic Duo "Something in the air") 

Dance: Tatyana Tchizikova, Mab Cardoso, Anton Rudakov, Alina Belyagina 

Music: Oleg Krokhalev 
Costumes: Nina Divitschek

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Created in frames of "Limited Edition 2021" at centre of choreography K3 with support of Hamburg department of culture and DfDK.