Giving ballet a modern twist

By He Jianwei

John Neumeier

US choreographers have dominated the German ballet scene since the mid-20th century, helping revive dance in the country. Among these artists is John Neumeier, director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet, who is in Beijing with his company to stage The Lady of the Camellias at the National Center for the Performing Arts until February 9.

The 68-year-old Neumeier is frank about the challenges of keeping alive classic art in modern times. Clad in a black suit over a red sweater, he frowned when he talked about the future of classic ballet, but said hope remained as long as choreographers put their hearts in their craft.

“Honesty is the best policy for artists. They must seek the character on stage in their own hearts. If they don’t believe in the character they created, the audience won’t belieit as well,” he said.

John Neumeier emphasizes the preservation of ballet tradition while introducing a modern dramatic framework into his work. Photos provided by the National Center for the Performming ArtsThe Lady of the Camellias

Seeking the freedom to create

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, Neumeier received his first ballet training at the University of Wisconsin and later studied in New York. He left for Europe to work at the Royal Ballet School in London in 1962.

He danced with the Stuttgart Ballet from 1963 to 1969, and then became ballet director of the Frankfurt Opera House from 1969 to 1973. Since 1973, he has been director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet.

“I had an instinctive feeling that Europe would free me, so I thought I’d go to Germany for a year. When I left the US in the early 1960s, it was a dry time for dance,” he said.

In the US, theater programs were heavily influenced by sponsors and only popular shows remained onstage. Artists had very little say in the lineup.

“Every country has an experience with the positive and negatie aspects of art management,” Neumeier said. “We have a wonderful dance education in the US, but when it comes to creating, the American system is more market-orientated.

Neumeier saw a different situation when he arrived in Germany. Dance companies balanced their programs between what the market dictated and what art demanded.

“The government gave more support to companies and we were free to do anything, as long as we earned a certan amount,” Neumeier said, adding that he believed these were some of the reasons many American choreographers moved to Germany in the 1960s.

This exodus of choreographers helped bring about a post-war revival of classic ballet in the country. Before they came, there was a flourishing modern dance movement but no major ballet company in Germany.

No second to Verdi’s opera

Neumeier has emphasized the preservation of ballet tradition while introducing modern dramatic framework into his works. His commitment to this vision can be seen in his version of ballet classics such as The Lady of the Camellias, currently on stage in Beijing.

Based on Alexandre Dumas’ novel of the same name, the three-act ballet made its debut in 1978. Neumeier came up with the idea for a dance drama in 1973 on the day he attended the funeral of John Cranko, former choreographer and artstic director of the Stuttgart Ballet.

“In 1976, during a lunch with Marcia Haydee [Cranko’s muse and the new director of Stuttgart Ballet], I came up with the idea of creating for heThe Lady of the Camellias,” he said.

The subject had been chosen, but the music stumped him. His first thought was to have a Giuseppe Verdi opera rearranged, but soon abandoned the idea. “I didn’t want my ballet to become secondary to Verdi’s opera,” he said.

As the start of rehearsals drew closer, he bumped into the ballet’s conductor, Gerhard Markson, and asked him, “Which music would you choose for a ballet inspired by DumasThe Lady of the Camellias?”

The conductor thought for a few minutes and said, “Chopin or Berlioz, or both.

Without thinking twice, Neumeier chose Chopin, thinking the Polish musical genius had a similar experience with the ballet’s lead female character, Margurite Gautier. Both of them suffered from illness and were famous in Paris salons.