Munich, 28 March 2025
PRESS RELEASE: BALLET FESTIVAL WEEK 2025
 
From Thursday 10 to Wednesday 16 April 2025, Ballet Festival Week 2025 presents the new production Wings of Memory in a unique series of performances. At the core of the triple bill, which can be enjoyed exclusively on six evenings in Munich’s Nationaltheater, is one of the best-known pieces of German dance history – The Rite of Spring by Pina Bausch. Also part of the triple bill are Bella Figura by Jiří Kylián and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Faun. On Sunday 13 April 2025 the performance series is complemented with the guest performance Lost Letters by the Lucia Lacarra Ballet.
 

FESTIVAL WEEK PREMIERE – “WINGS OF MEMORY“

BELLA FIGURA
 
“A feeling of falling down in a dream and waking up with a broken rib”- this is how Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián describes the space between the world of fantasy and the reality of life. In his piece, Bella Figura, an homage to beauty and purity, nine dancers explore moments in which the boundaries between reality and illusion are broken down and run over. The musical foundation is provided by works by baroque masters such as Antonio Vivaldi, Alessandro Marcello or even Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Along with the Principals Osiel Gouneo, Jakob Feyferlik, Madison Young and Ksenia Shevtsova, the rehearsing ensemble also includes the Corps de ballet member Margaret Whyte in a leading role.
 
FAUN
 
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’sFaun is inspired by a dance piece choreographed in 1912 by Vaclav Nijinsky set to Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. A faun is a Greek and Roman mythological hybrid being, which often appears as half-goat and half-human. Half-human and half-animal, it thus represents wildness and unbridled desire. It is precisely these mythical, partially animalistic elements that Cherkaoui in particular expresses so well in his choreography. At its core is the relationship between a faun and a nymph, who interact in almost child-like playfulness, but whose mutual attraction is constantly tangible here. This interplay is accompanied by Debussy’s music and the electronically generated sounds of the British composer, Nitin Sawhney. The duos currently rehearsing are Margarita Fernandes and António Casalinho, Zhanna Gubanova and Finn Faulconer, and Marina Mata Gomez and Frederick Stuckwisch.
 
THE RITE OF SPRING
 
With Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring, the centrepiece of the Wings of Memory triple bill is a truly special moment in the dance history of the 20th century. In response to Igor Stravinsky's scandalous ballet music, Le Sacre du printemps, the dance theatre legend who died in 2009, treated the cruelty experienced with human sacrifice with force and power – but also with inimitable sensitivity. In a dance language consisting of equally jerky and gentle movements, often moving in different directions, a human victim is chosen in a ritual dance. The stage floor, covered with turf and expressing the power of raw nature, is an essential component of the piece.
 
At the podium of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester is Andrew Litton, Music Director of the New York City Ballet, making his debut at the Bayerisches Staatsballett with the pieces, Le Sacre du printemps by Igor Stravinsky and L’après-midi d’un faune by Claude Debussy.

DATES
 
Thursday, April 10, 2025, 7:30 pm, premiere
Friday, April 11, 2025, 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 12, 2025, 5:00 pm
Monday, April 14, 2025, 7:30 pm
Tuesday, April 15, 2025, 7:30 pm
Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 7:30 pm

PRESS TICKETS

GUEST PERFORMANCE – “LOST LETTERS”

What might have been if? The piece Lost Letters, which former Bayerisches Staatsballett Principal Lucia Lacarra has created with her partner Matthew Golding, revolves around this very question. Lost Letters is inspired by a real letter, which gunner Frank Bracey wrote to his wife during the First World War. What course would her life have taken, if she had never received the letter? Unlike Frank Bracey’s letter to his wife, many other letters were presumably lost on their way and never reached their recipients. This observation is intended to encourage the audience to reflect on the importance of communication and lost connections.
Lost Letters is musically accentuated by the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Max Richter. The piece is danced by the members of the Lucia Lacarra Ballet.

Sunday, April 13, 2025, 7:30 pm

PRESS TICKETS

'BALLETT EXTRA' FOR BALLET FESTIVAL WEEK

On Saturday 5 April 2025, the Bayerisches Staatsballett opens the doors of the Nationaltheater and, shortly before the premiere of the Wings of Memory triple bill, provides insights into the final rehearsals. In this 90-minute matinee, selected scenes, which are given their final touches (without costumes or stage set and accompanied by piano music or music from loudspeakers), will be shown on the stage.
 
In advance of the premiere, the Bayerisches Staatsballett will also start a new collaboration with Munich’s Theatiner Filmkunst cinema, with screenings of the dance films Dancing Pina (2022) and Probe Sacre (1987). Kenji Takagi, a member of the Bausch Foundation, will also give a talk after the second film. Tickets for both events are available via Theatiner Kino.
 
Saturday, April 5, 2025, 11:00 am, Nationaltheater
Ballett extra: Public rehearsal for Wings of Memory
 
Sunday, April 6, 2025, 3:30 pm, cinema „Theatiner Filmkunst“
Ballett extra: Film Dancing Pina (2022)
 
Sunday, April 13, 2025, 11:00 am, cinema „Theatiner Filmkunst“
Ballett extra: Film Probe Sacre (1987)