Bundesjugendballett: THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE

The title of the evening refers to the decade before the First World War, when the imminent global catastrophe was already looming large on many fronts. Chansons from the period 1900-1914 are visualised via dance and gesture and as in earlier years the music is performed by selected grant-holders of the Chamber Music Academy. At the heart of the performance is a ballet by John Neumeier based on Ravel’s Ma mère l’oye (»Mother Goose«). Milwaukee-born Neumeier was awarded the Large Federal Cross of Merit in 2011. Back in the 1970s he staged his first encounter with Ravel’s music, whose fairy-tale suite, played here in a chamber version, shows us the world from the perspective of a child, harking back to the state of innocence that we adults have long since forfeited.