Trajal Harrell / Zürich Dance Ensemble
The Romeo
Past dates
9/25/25
8:00 PM
9/26/25
8:00 PM
9/26/25
9:15 PM
9:15 PM
Artist talk
9/27/25
8:00 PM
Trajall HarrellIt’s a real magic trick to get people to believe that they’re watching something old from the present. It’s all in the imagination, all me playing around with what I thought could possibly be, or have been. This is the artistic manoeuvre. It’s a contradiction in terms; historical imagination is always like that.
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Trajal Harrell is one of the most important choreographers of our time. His work is internationally acclaimed and he was awarded the Silver Lion at the Biennale Danza for his outstanding artistic work. He was the resident director of the Schauspielhaus Zürich for several years until 2024, and in the same year the Paris Festival d'Automne dedicated a retrospective to him. He has been a regular guest at Kampnagel with his company since 2011, most recently with "The Köln Concert", which was acclaimed by Hamburg audiences.
"The Romeo" celebrated its premiere in the Cour d'Honneur of the Palais des Papes at the Festival d'Avignon and now opens our new season.
In his works, Harrell combines historical imagination with fiction. Together with twelve dancers, he creates an imaginary historical dance in "The Romeo" - a dance that belongs to all people and could have originated in countless places across the ages - named after Shakespeare's young lover, who believed in his inflamed enthusiasm that he could overcome death. Imagine a dance that is known worldwide, although no one knows when and where it originated. A dance that all people dance when they face their tragedies. Trajal Harrell is now bringing this dance to Hamburg. And perhaps his story will begin together with you.
tanznetz.deThe Romeo without Romeo? You soon drop this thought once the dancing has begun. The twelve dancers, tall and stocky, young and old, move so beautifully and lost in a dream.
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Kulturblogg.deGreat dance theatre that will intensify from performance to performance and constantly trigger new transformation processes. Highly recommended, not just for dance fans.
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Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Lilo WeberThe artists around Trajal Harrell cross borders, live the coexistence of different cultures and arts, just like that - without any assertion or proclamation. This is how theatre should be.
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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Wiebke HüsterHarrell's intelligent theatre, which initially comes across as an art created only for artists, succeeds in drawing us all into its wonderful space, created for all of us, in which we can hear music that is important to us all in a new way, see dance in a new way, think in a new way, experience ourselves collectively.
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Wayne McGregor, Artistic Director of the Dance Department of La Biennale di VeneziaHarrell uses the tools of critical thinking, particularly research on gender, feminism and post-colonialism, to unlock his deep knowledge of art and dance history. As a result of extensive research, his shows resemble sensitive, hybrid and joyful objects that draw equally from fashion, pop culture and avant-garde art.
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https://zurichdanceensemble.ch/new/
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/musik-und-buehne/das-tanzstueck-the-romeo-von-trajal-harrell-in-berlin-19102497.html
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/musik-und-buehne/tanz/ein-gespraech-mit-dem-choreographen-trajal-harrell-110505065.html
https://mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de/de/berliner-festspiele/2023/interview-trajal-harrell
