Tom Schilling (choreographer)

Tom Schilling (born January 23, 1928 in Esperstedt , Thuringia ) is a German choreographer for modern dance theater .

Life

After primary school, Tom Schilling attended the commercial school in Dessau for two years . From 1941 to 1944 he was a student at the Theater Ballet School in Dessau. From 1944 he was an apprentice lathe operator in the Junkers armaments factory . In 1945 he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service and the Wehrmacht .

Schilling had his first engagement as a solo dancer from 1945 to 1946 in Dresden, then from 1946 to 1952 in Leipzig. From 1953 to 1956 he was a choreographer at the National Theater in Weimar and then from 1956 to 1964 ballet director at the State Opera in Dresden .

Artistic director Walter Felsenstein appointed Tom Schilling to the Komische Oper Berlin in 1965 (artistic director and chief choreographer) and commissioned him to set up a modern dance theater ensemble. In the first three years Tom Schilling choreographed Impulse , Fantastic Symphony , Abraxas , Cinderella , The Moor of Venice , and La mer with initially 24 dancers . The first contemporary ballet Der Doppelgänger by Fritz Geißler / Seeger was followed by Match , Rhythmus and 1970 Undine (music: Hans Werner Henze ).

Together with the ballet librettist Bernd Köllinger he staged a. a. Black Birds (1974), REVUE (1977), Swan Lake (1978 and 1992), Elective Affinities (1983), Cinderella (1984 and 1992) and Hoffmann's Stories (1986, Hoffmann: Gerald Binke ). The successful and controversial production A New Midsummer Night's Dream with prima ballerina Hannelore Bey and master dancer Roland Gawlik premiered in 1981.

Schilling sought to work with the composer Georg Katzer , who created new sound elements for modern dance theater in order to find new dance elements and choreographies. He opposed a ballet with a penchant for technical perfection; his goal was a new dance image.

1986 Schilling received the professorship for choreography at the theater school "Hans Otto" Leipzig.

The dance theater ensemble under the direction of Schilling worked a. a. with Hannelore Bey, Jutta Deutschland , Arila Siegert , Roland Gawlik, Gregor Seyffert , Angela Reinhardt and Thomas Kindt. In collaboration with 40 amateur dancers from the “Group of Young Dancers Jean Weidt ”, common crowd scenes were created, for example in Black Birds and A New Midsummer Night's Dream . The dance theater ensemble has made guest appearances in more than 30 countries around the world under Schilling's direction.

Tom Schilling lives in Berlin .

Awards

• 1970: Art Prize of the GDR
• 1982: National Prize of the GDR, 1st class for art and literature
• 1994: German Critics' Prize for dance
• German Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement in: 1996 Food awarded
• 1999: Order of Merit of the State of Berlin
• 2001: Honorary member of the Komische Oper zu Berlin
• 2002: Admission to the gallery of honor of the 101 choreographers of the 20th century
• 2003: Honorary member of the Friends of the Komische Oper Berlin eV association

Filmography

• 1986: Elective Affinities (studio recording)

literature

• Bernd Kollinger: Dance theater - Tom Schilling and contemporary choreography. Henschelverlag Art and Society , Berlin 1983.
• Jean Weidt, Marion Reinisch: On the big road. Dialog series, Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1984.
• Eberhard Rebling: Ballet from A – Z. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin.
• Fred Seeger: It happened on a summer night. In: Wochenpost 13/1981.
• Kornelia Bud:  Schilling, Tom . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Tom Schilling in the catalog of the German National Library
• Tom Schilling collection in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kornelia Bud:  Schilling, Tom . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .