Second Modernist Period for Hellerau

The birthplace of modernism. A hundred years ago, artists of all disciplines were moving into the Festspielhaus Hellerau, the cultural center of Germany’s first garden city. The Bauhaus style developed here, and modern dance received a key impetus. Dieter Jaenicke, the new artistic director, is intending to continue this tradition in the 21st century. After years of renovation and artistic groundwork, the legendary building is now set to become the most important center of contemporary art in eastern Germany.

Enlarge image

The great hall at Hellerau offers an ideal venue for a variety of performances.

(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

Hellerau will be a venue for all art forms in their contemporary forms of expression and the ever-more frequent overlaps between them – dance, music, theater, the fine arts, new media and literature. The Festival of Contemporary Music, now renamed Musiken, is open to experimental jazz and avant-garde rock, independent music and performative works. This coming October, works by musicians including Frank Zappa and Meredith Monk, Heiner Goebbels and Xavier le Roy will be presented. In cooperation with the TransMediaAkademie, one of many art institutions that have meanwhile moved into premises at Hellerau, CYNET, the new-media festival, will be starting in November. In the future, events will be taking place in the building all year long and in the summer it will also remain open for exhibitions organized by Dresden galleries together with galleries from other cities.

A dance venue

Enlarge image

American choreographer William Forsythe is the artistic director of the Forsythe Company, which is company-in-residence at the Festspielhaus Hellerau in Dresden and the Bockenheimer Depot in Frankfurt.

(© picture-alliance / dpa)

Dance is once again taking a leading place among the arts. The venue is perfect for the ground-breaking work of William Forsythe, who has been working here in residence with his company since 2005. The unusual rooms - the festival hall with its open stage, the large side stages and a number of halls with natural lighting - are superbly well-suited to developing his choreographic installations. For the future, Jaenicke also hopes that there will be opportunities for cooperation – the illuminating artistic dialogue with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in the early summer may have marked its start.

Artists of international standing, but also less well-known names will be developing positions that are varied, both with regard to their content and their aesthetics. At the beginning of the first season, John Jaspers, William Forsythe and Forced Entertainment are on the program, along with the young Spanish choreographer Avatara Ajusa, who is working on a piece about the garden city within the context of Tanzplan Dresden. Hellerau will also be staging its first productions and co-productions. Berlin choreographer Constanza Macras, for example, with whom regular cooperation has been agreed, is working on a version of Oedipus in cooperation with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and Dresden Chamber Choir; productions by artists including Lia Rodrigues and Les Slowaks are to follow.

Every year, a different version of Le Sacre du Printemps will be staged at Hellerau, modernism’s key work which Vaclav Nijinsky rehearsed in Hellerau with his assistant Marie Rambert, a pupil of the Institute for Rhythmics Hellerau. The first performance was by Marie Chouinard and one of the next guest performances will be Pina Bausch’s outstanding Frühlingsopfer.

Enlarge image

Artistic director Dieter Jaenicke said Hellerau will be a “place for creative work."

(© picture-alliance/ ZB)

Jaenicke, an experienced man of the theater, who worked most recently at the World Culture Forum in Brazil, places a strong emphasis on cooperation. Hellerau is participating in various networks and collaborations in the city, the region and far beyond and is instigating joint projects with cultural and academic institutions. A close connection exists with the Palucca School, which began through Tanzplan Dresden. Together, they are seeking to attract state-funded start-up programs enabling young artists to stay in Dresden, at least for a time. Tanzarchiv Leipzig, with which joint events are already planned, will be an important partner, as will Euroscene Leipzig, the largest festival in eastern Germany.

New space for residential programs

In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, a first major project has been agreed for next summer, Kids on Stage, which includes Hellerau’s own productions and outstanding guest performances from the fields of music, dance and theater. Hellerau is a member of the dance house network, a network of European dance theaters which aims to stage joint productions and to provide well-targeted support for artists. Dieter Jaenicke is very keen to promote links with Germany’s eastern neighbors. Audiences are still primarily interested in works from the west, but he hopes one day to surprise audiences with works from the east, particularly from the fields of the fine arts, theater and dance.

Enlarge image

This mural reminds visitors that the building was used as a barracks and gymnasium by the Russian army after World War II.

(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

The perspective is clear. Hellerau is to become a “place for creative work” (Jaenicke) once again. That means allowing even more things to happen, daring to do even more and inviting even more artists to come. Additional rehearsal rooms are required for this and also space for residential programs, which are becoming ever more important for artistic work. Jaenicke’s plan is to renovate the eastern wing following the example of the Cité des Arts in Paris and with the support of partner institutions to set up rehearsal rooms and ateliers for artists and researchers. Hellerau has a key advantage over similar residential buildings: “Here, it is not only possible to live and work, but also to show the works“ (Dieter Jaenicke).

Written by sociologist Edith Boxberger, who has been writing about dance and contributing to newspapers, magazines and publications for many years.

Translation: Eileen Flügel

Copyright: Goethe-Institut