My. God my calling in this world is it has to create with movement to speak. Living the story for me walking. Has shaped contemporary ballet in a way few others have so this is really important. Has to be i think that the goal weight has to be with the stepping on this ford. He has created more than one hundred fifty ballets for the worlds top dance companies. The John Neumeier foundation in hamburg this is where the choreographer lives and works amongst his unique Art Collection which revolves. Around dance. Has been the director of the hamburg ballet for over four decades its his company. We have an appointment with the american choreographer whose home is germany. To begin with would you reveal the secret of your dads const. Very heightened kind if i were to reveal that it wouldnt be a secret anymore and if i could reveal what it is id be afraid it would disappear into details the whole thing emerges from loving something in the end if you love something and you want to immerse yourself in it and for teachin. The. How do you remain so modern and abreast of the times that i cite as you probably not by trying to be modern but by being true to myself boy is i live in the here and not night i create from my own experience that is the moment its the present moment is by the moment it arises spontaneously with dancers in the studio and it ultimately determines what direction things take gate. Was. How do young boy who grew up in a polish neighborhood of milwaukee wisconsin end up in ballet. This is antiquity thats a very good questions and i dont really have an answer and he kind of on this i can only say. That i felt attracted to dance dance. It was familiar to. You must have seen dance performances to feel so attracted to it. Because you know that i had seen dance scenes in movies and musicals and id always found those sequences exciting climb up the guy start fund these a see. Him again heist in the field one spot i always hated it when the characters in the film spoke because i found that completely boring i want to dance and it was the very first time i saw a ballet performance but it could be it was copia. I didnt know what to expect. It is common and by the you know. The period on the stage began to dance to music naturally. And it was really lovely i could beat it and. In fact i prayed that she wouldnt speak and she didnt thank god. And that was my First Experience of ballet priest at first i wanted to be a priest. But i think that my wanting to be a priest had more to do with its theatrical appeal with all the conflict rituals it was so torn up by this was probably the first four theatre that id see. Is enough when you enter a room and theres a certain structure to various performances a special dress to music incense fun for you to find the zone the Christian Fundies on them was equal and all of these theatrical components and i just had to mend. I also wanted to become a psychiatrist at one point. Because the strange side of people really fascinated. Because i mention. That not that many of your ballets are based around ecclesiastical music how important is your faith to you with the catholic faith. He talbott i think my faith is simply a part of me and you know. This is cloud. I think my faith is something that is just there is. Oh and i can opt out which i do to work for me or but it was also natural for me that this dialogue with something that is invisible deal. With something above us or below us or around us it was not taboo wants to order once. Needs to. Win and so fan the idea of creating a ballet. Somehow connected to this dialogue or not. Was not alien to me i think for and i never had the idea that it was something off limits. That was for us money to unfasten don imus one of these ballets the same matthew passion was performed over two hundred times in hamburg alone it gained a cult following why do you think it was so popular with audiences. Because. This is specifying the lesson stick oh i think its better if you dont try to rationalize it i cant explain it i could never explain it as. That is proceed on good but i can only say that when i heard the st matthew passion of the human sick and i think that must have been in a church in ten thousand nine hundred sixty four. I somehow lewsey had the feeling that i would choreograph the piece one day that he had a great escape. If she had it this and i could go if he and went to see him i think i was waiting for the time to be right about it for me to be ready he stuff here i. Come. From. What i know is fodder and all of a sudden the whole thing unfolded like a detective novel for me and suddenly the moment came this point when i spontaneously said yes i want to do it now he said that this this video hit mine. You also spent over twenty five years performing the role of jesus in the same matthew passion how did you deal with that. We then see the middle move gung. Get. Our bit testy tatts that. If i think that the function of the son of god within this group was decisive type. Of into the tata and the fact that the teacher has it or so it was and was performed by the companys teacher had. Katon an inherent tension against his on the spot on. The. What does need to mine in ten sets of tide and sharing that experience with my dancers is honest on a strong emotional impact on all of those feet it sounds mark this is the fact that i was the one that they would automatically reject as it were the thousand nine hundred meter that hop. In two thousand and five johnno in my are created the ballet the Little Mermaid to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the famous danish fairytale author understand. Its become one of his most popular pieces in the us to. Why do you think that the Little Mermaid has become so successful in the country where you were born again i think. Its been for fest tough on you but so i am convinced that the things that speak to you personally the i know are the things that become successful it was fun because you recognize something of yourself within that stuff. Because hes from the klein a man you know the story of the Little Mermaid. D. Is basically. About someone who is willing to renounce her own beauty. Her own world so how is east in which she is marvelously at home her great life and. For love of you and indeed that boundless love handles boundless devotion weekends and always see him. And i think that on a small scale in. Many people can imagine Something Like that so it was foolish to. The. Lead. Mentioned many people say art can change the world others completely dismiss that what do you think that your art can achieve. And see god can mock and so it thats much i try to create paleface that to make people think about it or feel certain things this const is just healing i think that art is something more long lived in politics did like to whom and because artists directly connected to our humanity. Or us politics and just provides a specific answer to something completely. Like its got a limited shelf life used for his art is timeless and youll. Do it and as a result meanest and it has the opportunity to give it to provide inspiration to certain people in certain situations. I mean in spirit see on the fact that you live there. In one of the best. Investments. In two thousand and eleven John Nolan Meyer founded germanys First Ever National youth ballet it was his goal to present dance to a wider public these days with. The Spanish Language if. You. Get this point is you can buy that the National Youth ballet doesnt dance on the stage of the National State opera it doesnt have a stage it has to find one of these and it doesnt look for stages where only virtuosity is admired me but also in social institutions in suits you know peoples homes and schools even in jails itis high and insured and in so high in the famous it would does this i wouldnt imagine that a group of eight dancers for boys for girls act dance a few here could be so completely open to these people to see. The whole the show off a night. Made their very well trained dancers as it would but how they managed to communicate with others so freely in these ahem homes looks touching not on mention getting them to dance teaching them to dance z. Its a wonderful americal from a hands of myth and. This is from hannah i know. From the. Jungle in my are often goes back to the country of his birth also together with the hammer ballet this year there performing in new york and washington d. C. We caught up with him again at washington d. C. s biggest arts center the cannon. The center of the kennedys were strong advocates of the arts and put a lot of effort into the center neumeier is saddened by todays america and how different the atmosphere is. And the mission is the for them but of course i remember that you stood in front of j. F. K. Sculpture. He was murdered in one thousand nine hundred eighty three the year that you came to germany to europe. There was another spirit that. The situation has changed. What do you think now when youre on tour in the us. Is that they know in. Duncan see hes the yet to get it whats known in america i think that the Current Situation in the us this is terrible. And he explains it to its own in america but what it does is good about this extreme situation. Is that many people. Deeply are thinking much more seriously about politics now you can think of and im very curious worst of all as to see how well survive the next four years and then about what will come afterwards not for. You to get the other difficult country that we have to deal with where you spend a lot of time working is russia. How long have you been performing on the russian stage. Can you stay in and i cant remember when we first performed there but it was still called leningrad. Its someone asked we performed a midsummer nights dream at the mali theatre i think and that caused her great sensation. I also held a workshop there but that was a nightmare indian to us and i thought. In what way. Was it then what. Because i had an interpreter i said giving no i think it was a prison warden or something about. This for us to leave it was the worst experience that i had ever had. Mine t. Because i was trying to express my deep feelings for this country host for the tradition of dance. And the translation of my enthusiasm was condensed to about five words than when done got the and that and then i got a request from the mariinsky theater in what is now st petersburg. Its called and its follow i was essentially the First Western choreographer after prep keep. The i going. To create a work for this company and it was at this very moving. So yeah well you know and i said because it was so very difficult d c live on ice it was winter the rooms were sometimes ice cold the first in Legal Community cation was difficult but the dancers were wonderful off on the far as specially the women for some reason. They were much more open to something no you know its going to be. By d. C. They can hide. And small very high built up a very strong relationship with artists in russia but its especially dancers who can stay in scotland for im too tense and was not. Back in hamburg the set is being created for a new ballet an adaptation of leo tolstoy epic novel and a kareena. Its a coproduction with moscows bolshoi theater and the National Ballet of canada is as good as he read it you know mood over the artistic director of the bush i think it or has been invited for the rehearsals book. And the relationship with so join in of course. Each time we ask what next because we have ready and we are open. To be involved in this next project of course im not cutting you know was ideal drawn and of course for homburg company but from the first moment when joe said is the next can be on again we are ready we have ready to Work Together we are ready to care for. New creation in which her bit in africa. Had its premiere in hamburg new meyers new interpretation of the work went down well with both the audiences and the media. Spin the spirit of this and stuff and budget to market i was inspired to use this material for a ballet that to me represents a contemporary world that might be in the novel of a nice but wouldnt have been able to exist without enough or that. In spirit to give this inspiration form i take certain artistic freedoms. Interesting weir nuff cat stevens experience changes in his music and in is life similar to those experienced by particular characters in. The sophist one continue. To. This is just an instinctive and try i dont its instinctive decisions i look for what is essentially human the that is at the heart of the space around these yeah and i try to put it into a new form for sibling and one that lives through the dancers performing it. You spent a lot of time working in russian theaters. Throughout in fun even received the order of friendship from russian president putin and sat next to him at his table. That must have been the same year russia passed homophobic discriminatory legislation. How do you deal with that because it i dont see here is the law in itself isnt as bad as you might think. That prohibits influencing minors to pursue alternative lifestyles so for them the theory that means if you perform a ballet such as death in venice that contains a pod to do with two men could they could claim it was propaganda for same sex love and ban the piece of this is so youre saying. Is this the reality is in fact far worse. By the these exhibits the law isnt bad in itself nice ladies and alt but you know allow certain people to do things that are homophobic if you want and thats a terrible thing and when does this for us for spouses after and was it is this one on the other hand us in was that its incredible what is possible in russia in boise at the bolshoi theater if it is currently developing a piece on or off noria and. And one of the central themes is his relationship to eric eric broome. Its ofan its kind its in nj declaring he spoke to the head of the bolshoi theatre and i asked him how are you going to do this. And he says east well its the truth yet so so thats how were going to do it. And as i said i mean when i visit a premiere in russia my partner comes with being and everybody must know about how i lead my life and do i am. Not i think its important for me to maintain my dies to russia to the dancers to this world of art to conduct that into and so high he can touch it really is fantastic fun and is just fantastic. Art plays a very Important Role in russia and that moves me every time i experience it when one thats the victim here. A few days before it was due to premier in moscow near a you have was suddenly postponed to twenty eighteen officially due to scheduling difficulties this news reached us after our interview. In hamburg John Nolan Meyers work goes on after a successful season inspired by russian literature. Youve been in hamburg for forty four years now. Youve come a long way. You want an absolutely equal footing with the operator rector it must be a great feeling to have achieved so much here in germany ya da second here in. Yass but you dont want to wallow in that sensation. How should i put it. It never ends the conflict in the conflict involved in creating and relaying art in a theater and having the financial means to create art these things never end. And i never have the feeling i can just lean back because everything is going well and yet lloyd s. How do you manage to stay fit. I discovered that hard and it all comes from my core my center. Its just these are hobby i do this work at us fussy isnt something i do to improve my life. It is my life its one thats laid for me done for the thank you so much mr norm meyer i wish you all the best for your future work thank you and. Get. 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