See and experience A Techno Ballet Odyssey at Kraftwerk Berlin from 5 to 8 December 2024. The Berlin Ballet Company restages the story of Odysseus in the context of a Berlin club. The performance is just one part of an immersive event.
Arabesque, pirouettes, crisp and quick shoulder movements. Relevés on repeat in second position; up-down, up-down, like a breath. A reinterpretation of the Greek epic poem where Odysseus finds himself in the Berlin techno scene among dozens of ravers. The Berlin Ballet Company not only takes us on Odysseus’ journey this evening, it also offers us an immersive experience, an event with club feeling, food, a pre-party, an afterparty, Berlin style…
Upright bodies. Long arms gracefully navigating the space, interrupted by fitful gestures. Fast cameras film individual dancers as they move through the hordes of people. Everything is projected onto giant screens for everyone (or many) to see. In the concrete hall with its industrial flair are three raised podium stages where the different scenes of the Odyssey unfold. There are chic people everywhere, which is not surprising for a 59€ ticket price. However, that doesn’t get them an upfront spot near the stage today, but rather a taste test with performance, club feeling, and falafel. There are so many long lines: at the door, the bar, the coat check. It actually reminds me of a night out clubbing, but the atmosphere is different. It’s too clean for a realistic Berlin club experience, the people smell like fancy perfume and not like alcohol and sweat, and too few visitors are on the floor dancing. I’m in the VIP area and can witness the happening from up above. But the first row is already filled and I can only catch a glimpse of the dancers from the corners. I wonder if the masses down below can see more.
I watch the gracefully performed lifts, high kicks, body rolls in sequin pants and transparent net tops between the semi-transparent projection screen and concrete columns. The performers dance en pointe, barefoot, or in plateau high heels. Traditional ballet repertoire complements trends from subcultures like the ballroom scene. Why exactly voguing, a dance style from Black and Latin American queer communities in Harlem, has been adopted by Odysseus is not quite clear to me. While the audience celebrates staged queerness, queer youth centers are worried about their survival.
I’m distracted from the actual piece and notice how a feeling of discomfort keeps washing over me. I am in a crowd that I can’t identify with, their gait so upright that I can’t keep up despite years of ballet training. The immersive experience being sold to me here feels like a parallel universe. Grand gestures sent outwards, expensive costumes, an even more expensive location. And at the same time, club night, bar, food truck, modern ballet, and opera performance. Culture for a cultivated audience. Are these the dance projects of the future? Supported by the CDU and anyone who can afford the entry fee. Projects that far exceed the budgets of small collectives. If they can even survive in the future. Thanks to the planned cuts by the Berlin Senate a lot of these small projects will no longer exist. And yet, the Berlin dance scene, the way I know it and the uniqueness which I appreciate, thrives on a variety of small and large projects and diverse artists. The stark, futuristic concrete building where A Techno Ballet Odyssey takes place leaves me with a sense of foreboding.
English translation by Melissa Maldonado
A Techno Ballet Odyssey by the Berlin Ballet Company was presented at Kraftwerk Berlin from 5 to 8 December 2024.
