HEUTE IST MORGEN (TODAY IS TOMORROW) 2022

Özkan Ayik: dunkelgrau

Jonah Cook: Played

Philippe Kratz: to get to become

With dunkelgrau, Özkan Ayik will present his second piece at the Bayerisches  Staatsballett, after Tag Zwei  which had premiered in 2021  also as part of Heute ist morgen. His choreographic language is characterised by a great interest in gestural vocabulary, an exploratory approach a nd a special sense for the relationships between body and space. Özkan Ayik was born in Seydişehir in Turkey and grew up in Istanbul. After working as a dancer with the Stuttgart Ballet and the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich, he joined Marco Goecke at the Staatsballett Hannover. In addition to his dancing career, Özkan Ayik has repeatedly choreographed, among other productions, down down, the solo two or three things for the Young Choreographers Programme of the Noverre Society or a stutter at the Staatsballett Hannover.

Philippe Kratz's to get to become is his first piece with the Bayerisches Staatsballett. During his career as a dancer, which most recently took him to Aterballetto, he has repeatedly presented choreographic works. He is interested in breaking down clichés, questioning stereotypes and breaking new ground. He tries to integrate different perspectives in his work as a choreographer, both in his engagement with the dancers he works with in the studio and through the music that is used. In to get to become, African-American rap, among other music, can be heard. For Kratz, this approach reflects his search for fulfilment and a place in society, as he explained in a recent interview with Silvia Poletti. In 2014 and 2017, the magazine TANZ awarded him the title "Hopeful". The Italian magazine Danza&Danza named Philippe Kratz Choreographer of the Year in January 2020.

Jonah Cook will present his first work as a choreographer for the Bayerisches Staatsballett as part of Heute ist morgen. He was inspired, among other things, by a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth:

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

The motif of „playing“ is at the heart of Jonah Cook's choreography, in which he explores a web of relationships that develops between a group of people. At the Bayerisches Staatsballett, Jonah Cook started as a volunteer in the 2012/2013 season and was engaged as a group dancer at the beginning of the 2013/2014 season. The following year he was promoted to semi-soloist, then soloist and at the beginning of the 2017/2018 season to principal dancer.