My. God in my calling in this world is his to create with movement. You were living the story from walking. There he has shaped contemporary ballet in a way few others have so this is really important that. 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 on. The John Neumeier foundation and hammer. This is where the choreographer lives and works amongst his unique Art Collection which revolves around dance neumeyer 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. And so on to begin with would you reveal the secret of your dance pants const. Then each test for 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 titos even the whole thing emerges from loving something in the end if you love something humans you want to immerse yourself in it and for teeth and. The. How do you remain so modern and abreast of the times i think thats an issue i havent moved from a bully not by trying to be modern but by being true to myself is i live in the here and not i i create from my own experience that this is the moment its the present moment is when the moment that arises spontaneously with dancers in the studio that ultimately determines what direction things tag gate. How did the young boy who grew up in a polish neighborhood of milwaukee wisconsin end up in ballet while it does his antiquity thats a very good question its caused and i dont really have an answer and he counted on this i can only say. That i felt attracted to dance dance. It was familiar to them. You must have seen dance performances to feel so attracted to it. Because yes i had i had seen dance scenes in movies and musicals and id always found those sequences exciting climb up the guy start fund these is say you know in theory. Yes. Yes in a guy heist if you want because pocket i always hated it when the characters in the film spoke because i found that completely boring i want to dance but it was the very first time i saw a ballet performance but it it was. Well i didnt know what to expect with me here about it is common by the you know about the arena appeared on the stage and began to dance to music naturally. And it was really lovely i think 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 the people with all their catholic rituals it was so that i just felt like i was probably the first form of theater that i could see. Is enough when you enter a room and theres a certain structure to various performances and special dress and music you know incense fun for it to fun design the costume and fun design them was equal and all of these theatrical components and i didnt doubt audition had them and. I also wanted to become a psychiatrist at one point. Because the strange side of people really fascinated me. Because i had to mention and see if i seen yet 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. From this is cloud. I think my faith is something that is just there is. Well and i can opt out which i do. I will for me but it was also natural for me that this dialogue with something that is invisible. With something above us or below us or around us it was not taboo. Wants. Needs to tumble. And and so fan the idea of creating a ballet. Somehow connected to this dialogue or not. Was not alien to me and i think fun i never had the idea that it was something off limits does is it was for us man needs to unfasten down i know 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 and oh i think its better if you dont try to rationalize it i cant explain it i could never explain it as. Good but i can only say that when i heard the st matthew passion for humans in the end i think that must have been in a church and ten thousand nine hundred sixty four. I somehow lucy had the feeling that i would choreograph the piece one day that he had a disc of. He hit it this and i could go off he and went with it i think i was waiting for the time to be right about it for me to be ready he stuff i. Was. But i know its vile and all of a sudden the whole thing unfolded like a detective novel form a slot them and suddenly the moment came this point when i spontaneously said yes i want to do it now he snapped up this this video here mind. You also spent over twenty five years performing the role of jesus in the same matthew passion how did you deal with that one is and see the middle move gung. The youre. Getting. The. Other testy tazza hurt us. If i think that the function of the son of god within this group was decisive. Into the time. And the fact that the teacher as it were so. Was performed by the companys teacher had gotten an inherent tension against his own less on. The the one does need to mine and ten sets of tide and sharing that experience with my dancers is honest and a strong emotional impact on all of them sweet it ends mark this is the fact that i was the one that they would automatically reject as it were a fine line and murder that hop. In two thousand and five john doe 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 that you know how much has 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 them and stopped. Going to get shoes for neckline a man you know the story of the Little Mermaid. D. L. Ike and it is basically. About someone who was willing to renounce her own beauty. Her own world so how was it used in which she is marvelously at home her great life and. For love healthy view and it boundless last handles boundless devotion and it was a god and i think that on a small scale in. Many people can imagine Something Like that so let us first feather. Boa. Thank you thank. You didnt mention that many people say art can change the world others completely dismiss that what do you think that your art can achieve but weve. Seen it down can mock and so it lets munch on i try to create ballets to make people think about it or feel certain things this creates just feeling i think that art is something more long lived in politics women because artists directly connected to our humanity pretty well as politics and just provide as a specific answer to something completely. Like its got a limited shelf life and stories art is timeless you know. And as a result and it has the opportunity to provide inspiration to certain people in certain situations. I mean in spirit see on the fact that you know. In one of the best. Conditions. 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. Knows the spanish the from. The. Sleepy at 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 and it doesnt look for stages where only virtuosity is admired but also in social institutions in you know peoples homes and schools and even in jails i decide im not insured and and so gotten in the thing is when. I wouldnt imagine that a group of eight dancers four boys four girls act since a few here could be so completely open to these people. On the whole the show off a night. May never very well trained dancers as it would but how they managed to communicate with others so freely contains easel helms looks touching that on mention getting them to dance teaching them to dance z. Its a wonderful americal for nathans and mithun. So he and i know. Of one. John and i my are often goes back to the country of his birth also together with a hammer ballet this year theyre 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 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. Number three is. What its called i remember that you stood in front of j. F. K. Sculpture. He was murdered in one nine hundred sixty 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 the courts. Duncan is in to see hes. Yet to get it whats known in america i think that the Current Situation in the us this is terrible and he explains it whats in there but what is good about this extreme situation. Is that many people deeply are thinking much more seriously about politics now and im very curious first of all as to see how well survive the next four years. And then about what will come afterwards that not follow what. You think 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 stand and im going say as a guy i cant remember when we first performed there but it was still called leningrad yeah 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 i think that was a nightmare indian talent to us and i for tom. In what way. Was it something hot. Because i had an interpreter i said giving no i think was a prison warden or something. So this forced us to leave it was the worst experience that i had ever had. My teeth because i was trying to express my deep feelings for this Country House for the tradition of dance. And the translation of my enthusiasm was condensed to about five words found when done got the and and then i got a request from the marine ski theatre in what is now St Petersburg and its called him and his fall i was essentially the First Western choreographer after. I didnt k. S. U. To create a work for this company and it was not for this very moving. Yeah well and i said because it was so very difficult the sea level i thought was winters the rooms were sometimes ice cold the first indigo communication was difficult but the dancers were wonderful off and if it was specially the women for some reason. They were much more open to something no film noir this entry. By d. C. Could ignite point and slowly i built up a very strong relationship with artists in russia its especially dancers to consider in scotland for im too tense and whisnant 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. Has a good. Mood over the artistic director of the bush i think it or has been invited for the rehearsals because. All credit lation the nation so with join in of course. Each time we ask what next because we have ready and we are open. To being involved stars in this next project of course im including in that was ideal. And of course for a company from the first moment when. Said the next can be on again we are ready we are ready to Work Together we are ready to care for the new creation in which a bit invest with you after. The and. At its premiere in hamburg no myers new interpretation of the work went down well with both the audiences and the media. Spin the spirit isnt stuff and but it i was inspired to use this material for a ballet that to me represents a contemporary world that might be in the novel but wouldnt have many able to exist without enough on that. In spirit to give this inspiration form i take certain artistic freedoms. Interestingly enough cat stevens experience changes in his music and in his life similar to those experienced by particular characters in. The nick of time you know. The and the and. The and there are areas to. The and. The and. The end this is just i mean instinctive and its instinctive decisions i look for what is essentially human that is at the heart of the space. And i try to put it into a new form. Sibling and one that lives through the dancers performing it. Spent a lot of time working in russian theatres. 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. Is the law in itself isnt as bad as you might think it. 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. They could claim it was propaganda for same sex love and ban the piece. So yes there. Is the reality is in fact far worse. By the these exits 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 to and thats a terrible thing and when does this last for spouses after i was at it is this one on the other hand us. Its incredible what is possible in russia in. The bolshoi theater if it is currently developing a piece on or off norio and. And one of the central themes is his relationship to erik prince in every room. In so fan its kind of a clear i spoke to the head of the bolshoi theater and i asked him how are you going to do this yes yes and he said east well its the truth in this yet so so thats how were going to do it is that you know and as i said. When i visit a premiere in russia my partner comes with being and everybody must know about how i lead my life and who i am. But i think its important for me to maintain my dies to russia to the dancers to this world of art contact and into and so i can talk to 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 he smiles. 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. Im adopted here in so im confused by yes but you dont want to wallow in that sensation and his song how should i put it is it never ends the conflict in the conflict involved in creating and relaying our dinner theater and having the financial means to create art these things never end. Doesnt 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 its called i discovered i was at heart and it all comes from my core my center. Is just. In this world. Isnt something i do to improve my life. It is my life. For me. Thank you so much mr norman i wish you all the best for your future work thank you and. What. You this week. The cakes combines fashion and food you steve. When. I smash a film on how the alpine money it seems moved and done. An island to fall in love with the sweetness of the land and its multifaceted charms. The romantics thirteen and w. Enter the conflict zone confronting the powerful lobby challenging those in power asking tough questions demanding answers. As conflicts intensify ill be meeting with key players on the ground in the centers of. Cutting through the rhetoric holding the fossils with cold facts the conflicts of. Conflict zone confronting the powerful on t. W. Meet the germans new and surprising aspects of noise and culture in germany. Us american keep news out take a look at germany it is increasing at their traditions every day lives and language doesnt just come out of my lungs and so im young good just. Like the french beguile d. W. Dot com beat the germans. Your children like chocolate. You cant live without your smartphone. Do you buy your tomatoes in the supermarket. As we go about our daily lives human rights oh. From the last thing on a womans. Invisible hands. Slavery in the twenty first century. Starting december second on d w. This is d w news live from berlin zimbabweans turn out in the tens of thousands to protest to to demand the resignation of president Robert Mugabe the streets of the capital harare have been kept the crowds calling from about his departure