Johann Kresnik

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Johann Kresnik (born December 12, 1939 in St. Margarethen , Carinthia ; † July 27, 2019 in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee ) was an Austrian dancer , choreographer and theater director . He was one of the pioneers of German dance theater . His pieces, which he called “choreographic theater”, were consistently geared towards provocation and the disruption of traditional dance aesthetics. The dance chronicler Jochen Schmidt called him the “berserk” among his directors.

Life

Kresnik was born the son of a mountain farmer. His mother was the second marriage to a functionary of the Styrian KPÖ , in whose Graz house the family also lived. He also became a member of the KPÖ. Johann Kresnik began his artistic career in Graz , where he worked parallel to an apprenticeship in toolmaking as an extra at the United Theaters and began training in acting and dance. In 1959 Kresnik was engaged as a group dancer in Graz and from 1960 to Bremen . In 1962 he went to the stages of the city of Cologne , where he worked as a solo dancer from 1964 to 1968. Because of his dance performance, he was allowed to perform with George Balanchine's New York City Ballet when Balanchine was rehearsing his Nutcracker choreography in Cologne.

Johann Kresnik died of heart failure at the age of 79. His urn was buried at the St. Margarethen cemetery. In August 2008 he had already transferred his 40 years of dance history to the Akademie der Künste Berlin .

The first pieces

According to his own statements, however, classical ballet no longer seemed up to date. Inherently Marxist prefigured, he was particularly interested in the radical spectacle of the sixties , trying to bring these more open forms on the dance stage.

In 1967 he choreographed his first piece, which deals with a sub-area of ​​his later main themes of madness, anger, crossing borders and death: a collage of texts by patients suffering from schizophrenia : O sela pei . 1968 followed paradise? - here Kresnik et al. a. the assassination attempt on Rudi Dutschke .

Ballet director in Bremen and Heidelberg

In the same year, Kurt Hübner engaged the almost thirty- year- old as ballet director at the Bremen theater , where Kresnik continued his exploration of imperialism, war propaganda and daily politics on the one hand and the search for the appropriate form - and suitable dance staff - on the other.

It emerged u. a. War instructions for everyone , PIGasUS (together with the poet Yaak Karsunke ) and Schwanensee AG , as well as the piece Traktate in 1973 , for which Kresnik first chose the term “choreographic theater”.

He moved to the Theater der Stadt Heidelberg , where he presented the play Family Dialogues in 1980 based on a libretto by the well-known therapist Helm Stierlin . It was Kresnik's reckoning with the time of National Socialism and its later psychological effects. Kresnik himself is said to have seen his father, who was serving in the Wehrmacht, shot by Slovenian partisans at the age of three . This was followed in 1983 by Mars (1983), based on the autobiography of the terminally ill millionaire's son with the pseudonym Fritz Zorn , a production that is characterized by violent images and monotonous bursts of energy.

Suicides, murderers, victims are the themes that run through Kresnik's time in Heidelberg. Macbeth was created in 1988, and Ulrike Meinhof in 1990 . In February 1992, Frida Kahlo was premiered, a play about the life and work of the Mexican painter. Wendewut brought Kresnik to the stage a year later. In it, based on the story of the same name by Günter Gaus, he describes the story of a GDR follower who, in Germany at the time of the fall of the Wall, failed in her desire to adapt to the society of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Volksbühne Berlin

At the beginning of the 1994/95 season, Johann Kresnik and his ensemble moved to the Volksbühne on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin . The choreographic piece Ernst Jünger was premiered here in December 1994 , an anti-war revue in which Kresnik critically examines the militaristic ideas of the hundred-year-old author. In April 1995 Kresnik concluded his trilogy about pioneers, followers and companions of National Socialism . After Nietzsche and Ernst Jünger , he chose the life of the actor, director and artistic director Gustaf Gründgens as the model for a play that premiered in Hamburg as a co-production between the Volksbühne and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus .

Choreographic Theater Bonn

From 2003 to 2008 Johann Kresnik directed the “Choreographic Theater” of the city of Bonn . In December 2004 he and Hannelore Kohl showed the life story of the wife of the former Federal Chancellor on the stage of the former federal capital . D., Helmut Kohl . In it, Hannelore Kohl is both victim and perpetrator, who supports her husband's rise to the rank of Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, but cannot cope with the effects of power psychologically and physically until her husband's donation scandal and electoral defeat and her illness drive her to suicide .

In February 2006 and January 2008 Kresnik had his last two premieres in Bonn with The Ring of the Nibelung I: Das Rheingold / Die Walküre and The Ring of the Nibelung II: Götterdämmerung / Siegfried .

After Bonn he occasionally worked as a freelance choreographer and director for opera and drama. His work also had an effect. Most recently, the ImPulsTanz dance festival opened in Vienna in July 2019 with a new production of his ballet Macbeth from 1988 .

Bleiburg / Pliberk choreographic center

The Choreographic Center, founded in 2011 in Kresnik's native Bleiburg, is named after the choreographer. The Bleiburg / Pliberk Choreographic Center is a platform for contemporary dance in Carinthia and deals with Kresnik's work.

Awards

Johann Kresnik produced his pieces on numerous stages, often in close collaboration with librettists , composers and visual artists . He has made guest appearances with his ensemble at important festivals around the world. Kresnik has received several awards for his artistic work: in 1990 with the Berlin Theater Prize and the German Critics' Prize , in 1994 with the Berlin Bear (BZ Culture Prize) , and in 2019 with the Golden Sign of Merit of the State of Vienna . With his productions Macbeth , Ulrike Meinhof , Frida Kahlo and Wendewut , Kresnik was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 1988, 1990, 1992 and 1993 .

Productions

  • 1967 Cologne : O Sela Pei
  • 1968 Cologne: Paradise?
  • 1969 Berlin : Susi Cremecheese
  • 1970 Bremen : Ballet premiere
  • 1970 Bremen: War instructions for everyone
  • 1970 Bremen: Spring became ...
  • 1970 Bremen: PIGasUS
  • 1971 Berlin: Jaromir
  • 1971 Bremen: Schwanensee AG
  • 1973 Bremen: Treatises
  • 1974 Bremen: The Nibelungs
  • 1975 Bremen: Romeo and Juliet
  • 1976 Bremen: Pictures of Fame
  • 1976 Bremen: Peter and the Wolf
  • 1977 Bremen: Jesus GmbH
  • 1977 Vienna : Masada
  • 1978 Bremen: Magnet
  • 1978 Heidelberg : play of soul and body
  • 1979 Heidelberg: Mutton and Bammel as traffic police
  • 1980 Heidelberg: Family dialogue
  • 1980 Heidelberg: Pelleas and Melisande
  • 1980 Heidelberg: The Hamlet machine
  • 1981 Heidelberg: The resilient rise of Arturo Ui
  • 1981 Frankfurt am Main : The soldiers
  • 1982 Heidelberg: Sacre
  • 1983 Heidelberg: Mars
  • 1984 Heidelberg: clearance sale
  • 1985 Heidelberg: Sylvia Plath
  • 1986 Heidelberg: Pasolini - The dream of a person
  • 1986 Munich : Welcome
  • 1987 Heidelberg: murderer Woyzeck
  • 1988 Heidelberg: Macbeth
  • 1988 Mannheim : Germania - death in Berlin
  • 1989 Heidelberg: Oedipus
  • 1989 Stuttgart : King Ubu
  • 1990 Bremen: Ulrike Meinhof
  • 1990 Stuttgart: Marat-Sade
  • 1991 Bremen: King Lear
  • 1991 Stuttgart: And behold it happened that night
  • 1992 Bremen: Frida Kahlo
  • 1992 São Paulo : (Zero) 2
  • 1992 Bremen: Wendewut
  • 1993 Basel : Mars
  • 1993 Berlin : Rosa Luxemburg - Red roses for you
  • 1993 Stuttgart: Francis Bacon
  • 1994 Bremen: Nietzsche
  • 1994 Berlin: Ernst Jünger
  • 1995 Hamburg : Gründgens
  • 1995 Stuttgart: Othello
  • 1995 Stuttgart: Hansel and Gretel
  • 1996 Hamburg: Pasolini - Testament of the Body
  • 1996 Cologne : Riefenstahl
  • 1997 Berlin: Supper of love
  • 1997 Berlin: Antonin Nalpas
  • 1997 Bremen: Fidelio
  • 1998 Hamburg: Suburbio / No Man's Land
  • 1998 Mannheim : Brecht
  • 1998 Mexico : La Malinche
  • 1998 Berlin: Hotel Lux
  • 1999 Berlin: Goya - The sleep of reason gives birth to monsters
  • 1999 Vienna: Viennese Blood
  • 1999 Bremen: The last days of mankind
  • 1999 Berlin: Richard III
  • 1999 Saarbrücken : Nabucco
  • 2000 Vienna: Don Quixote
  • 2000 Hamburg: All Souls
  • 2000 Graz: Schnitzler's Brain
  • 2000 Bremen: Intolleranza
  • 2000 Bogotá : Plan Via
  • 2001 Berlin: Garden of Earthly Delights. BSE
  • 2001 Hanover: Woyzeck
  • 2002 Stuttgart: Baudelaire
  • 2002 Berlin: Picasso
  • 2002 Dresden : The ruins of conscience / street corner
  • 2002 Hanover: Antigone
  • 2003 Essen : Everyman
  • 2003 Bremen: Vogeler
  • 2003 Salzburg : Peer Gynt
  • 2003 Gera : The sixth hour
  • 2004 Bremen: The Ten Commandments
  • 2004 Bonn : Hannelore Kohl
  • 2004 Bonn: One hundred years of loneliness
  • 2005 Bonn: Hans Christian Andersen
  • 2005 Bonn: Roberto Zucco
  • 2005 Vienna : Spiegelgrund
  • 2005 Stuttgart: Gudrun Ensslin
  • 2006 Potsdam: Otto, Hans
  • 2006 Bonn: The Ring of the Nibelung : Das Rheingold / Die Walküre
  • 2007 Bremen: America
  • 2007 Erfurt: Un ballo in maschera (A masked ball)
  • 2008 Bonn: The Ring of the Nibelung : Götterdämmerung / Siegfried
  • 2010 Osnabrück : Felix Nussbaum
  • 2010 State Theater Cottbus : Prince Pückler's Utopia
  • 2012 Heidelberg: Prinzhorn Collection
  • 2013 Berlin : Villa Verdi
  • 2015 Berlin : The 120 days of Sodom
  • 2016 Wuppertal : Hell / Inferno

literature

  • Genia Enzelberger, Zdravko Haderlap (eds.): "Ballet can fight": Symposium on politics, contemporary history and social criticism in Johann Kresnik's work = "Balet se zna boriti" . Conference publication, 2009, Bleiburg. Translation: Peter Wieser. Vienna: Lit, 2009 ISBN 978-3-643-50084-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Standard of July 27, 2019: Obituaries: 1939–2019 Johann Kresnik. The eternal provocateur of dance theater is dead , accessed on July 27, 2019
  2. ↑ Dance pioneer Johann Kresnik has passed away. In: orf.at. July 27, 2019, accessed July 27, 2019.
  3. ↑ Johann Kresnik's obituary notices. In: trauer.kleinezeitung.at. August 2, 2019, accessed August 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Akademie der Künste receives Kresnik archive , Deutsche Welle from August 8, 2008, accessed July 30, 2019
  5. ↑ a b Pionier des Tanztheater , nachtkritik.de of July 27, 2019, accessed July 30, 2019
  6. ^ Bleiburg as a dance center . In: Small newspaper. January 5, 2011, accessed December 12, 2014.
    Center for Choreography: about CCB . ( Memento of February 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  7. ↑ ImPulsTanz 2019: Johann Kresnik receives the Golden Merit of the State of Vienna. July 12, 2019, accessed July 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Kresnik, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kresnik, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian dancer , choreographer and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Margarethen , Carinthia
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 2019
Place of death Klagenfurt am Wörthersee