John Neumeier

John Neumeier (born February 24, 1939 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin ) is an American dancer , choreographer and ballet director .

Internationally recognized and distinguished for his ballet choreographies, Neumeier has been ballet director and chief choreographer of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973 and as ballet director at the State Opera in Hamburg , but also as a guest choreographer in other locations. He is also the director of the ballet school he founded in Hamburg.

Live and act

A biography of the Russian ballet legend Vaslav Nijinsky in the local city library aroused his interest in dance and occupied him with the life and work of Nijinsky all his life. Neumeier received his first ballet lessons in his hometown. This was followed by years of apprenticeship in Copenhagen and at the Royal Ballet School in London. Eventually he returned to Milwaukee and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the local Marquette University in the subjects of " English Literature " and " Theater Studies ". When he danced in London in 1963, u saw him there. a. also Marcia Haydée and Ray Barra . Because these two recognized the great potential of the young talent, they advised their director John Cranko to hire him for the Stuttgart Ballet . He belonged to this troupe as a dancer (later a soloist) until 1969 and created his first choreographies.

Ulrich Erfurth called him to Frankfurt am Main , where he was ballet director from 1969 to 1973. Neumeier caused a sensation during this time with his reinterpretation of well-known narrative ballets ( The Nutcracker , Romeo and Juliet and Daphnis and Chloë ). In 1973 August Everding brought him to Hamburg. Since then he has been the director of the Hamburg Ballet at the Hamburg State Opera , which under his direction has become one of the leading German ballet companies .

In 1978 he founded the Hamburg Ballet School there , of which he is also director. The Stuttgart Ballet School served as a model . Neumeier is a member of the Free Academy of the Arts Hamburg and the Academy of the Arts Berlin .

Maurice Béjart choreographed in 1984 for Neumeier and Marcia Haydée (Neumeier dedicated his lady of camellias to her ) as a dancer Les Chaises based on Ionesco's The Chairs . The piece was on tours a. a. shown in New York, Zurich, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Berlin, Essen, Dresden, Paris and Copenhagen.

As a guest choreographer, Neumeier u. a. repeatedly at the American Ballet Theater in New York (including Getting Closer 1999), at the Royal Ballet in London ( Lento for the reopening of the Royal Opera House ), at the Tokyo Ballet in Tokyo ( Seasons - The Colors of Time on the 35th anniversary of 2000), at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg ( Sounds of Empty Pages , dedicated to Alfred Schnittke , 2001 as the first western choreographer for 100 years), the ballet companies of the Vienna and Dresden State Operas , the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, the ballet of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, at the Stuttgart Ballet , at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen (including The Little Mermaid 2005 premiere for the opening of the opera house / 200th birthday of Hans Christian Andersen ), at the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm , at the Finnish National Ballet , for the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic , at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the National Ballet in Canada, the American Ballet Theater, the Ballet du XXième siécle in Brussels, at the Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris , at the Ballet des Grand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva and at the San Francisco Ballet .

A Midsummer Night's Dream , choreography by John Neumeier, Patryk Walczak as Puck (2013)

His best-known works as a choreographer include Romeo and Juliet (1971), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1977), Lady of the Camellias (1978), Medea (1990), Sylvia (1997), Matthew Passion (1981), Messias (1999), Endstation Sehnsucht ( 1983), Odyssey (1995), King Arthur (1982) and Illusions - like Swan Lake (1976), Nijinsky (2000), The Seagull (2002). In 2006 Parzival - Episoden und Echo was created with music by John Adams , Richard Wagner and Arvo Pärt .

Even if Neumeier's work focuses on the full-length narrative ballet, he has occasionally also gladly taken on other stage works. For example, he staged Othello by Giuseppe Verdi at the Bavarian State Opera and Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck and the musical West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein at the Hamburg State Opera.

A highlight for the Hamburg ballet scene are the always sold-out ballet workshops of John Neumeier, which usually take place four times during a season, including a charity ballet workshop.

Neumeier was close friends with the Austrian actor Werner Pochath, who died in 1993 .

Neumeier established the John Neumeier Foundation in 2006 with the aim of securing his dance and ballet collection and his life's work for the city of Hamburg and making them accessible to the public.

After the Neumeier parish congratulated him on his 70th birthday in 2009, Neumeier told Dance Magazine that he was born in 1942. In 2017 he announced that he was actually born in 1939.

On December 21, 2018, Neumeier married his long-term partner.

Awards (selection)

• In 1975 John Neumeier received the honorary award of the Silver Mask of the Hamburger Volksbühne for the choreography of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony .
• In 1978 the North German Broadcasting Corporation recorded four episodes of John Neumeier's ballet workshop events. This gave him the Golden Camera in the same year .
• In 1983 he received the Dance Magazine Award. Four years later, the Marquette University in his hometown appointed him an honorary doctorate in fine arts and the Senate of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg appointed him a professor.
• In 1988 he received two prizes: the German Dance Prize and the Prix Diaghilev. The following year he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Danebrog Order in Denmark .
• In 1994 John Neumeier was awarded the Hamburg Citizens' Prize by the CDU Hamburg.
• In 1995 John Neumeier was awarded the Biblical and Culture Foundation Prize for Choreography.
• In 2005 Neumeier received the SAECULUM Glashütte Original Music Festival Prize for his services as a choreographer at the Dresden Music Festival .
• In 2007 John Neumeier was awarded the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize and made an honorary citizen of Hamburg .
• In 2008 Neumeier was accepted by the Association for the Promotion of Dance Art in Germany. V. and the German Professional Association for Dance Education e. V. awarded the German Dance Prize.
• John Neumeier has been the recipient of the Great Federal Cross of Merit since 2011 .
• In 2012 he received the Gustaf Gründgens Prize, which was awarded for the first time .
• In 2012 Neumeier received the Order of Friendship of Nations in Moscow .
• In 2013, the Polish Minister of Culture awarded him the Gloria Artis Medal for cultural merit .
• In 2015 he was awarded the Golden Schikaneder at the Austrian Music Theater Prize in the category Best Ballet Production for The Lady of the Camellias at the Theater an der Wien .
• In 2015 Neumeier was awarded the Kyoto Prize .
• In 2017 Neumeier received the Erich Fromm Prize .

Choreographies (selection list)

• Haiku (1966, Stuttgart)
• Separate Journeys (1968, Schwetzingen)
• Brandenburg 3 (1970, Frankfurt)
• The Firebird (1970, Frankfurt)
• Romeo and Juliet (1971, Frankfurt)
• The Nutcracker (1971, Frankfurt)
• The Fairy's Kiss (1972, Frankfurt)
• Daphnis and Chloe (1972, Frankfurt)
• Twilight (1972, Frankfurt)
• Le sacre (1972, Frankfurt)
• Désir (1973, Hamburg)
• Night (1973, Stuttgart)
• Third Symphony by Gustav Mahler (1975, Hamburg)
• Hamlet Connotations (1976, New York)
• Illusions - like Swan Lake (1976, Hamburg)
• Rückert-Lieder (1976, Hamburg)
• The Hamlet Case (1976, Stuttgart)
• Joseph's Legend (1977, Vienna)
• Fourth Symphony by Gustav Mahler (1977, London)
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1977, Hamburg)
• Sleeping Beauty (1978, Hamburg)
• The Lady of the Camellias (1978, Stuttgart)
• Vaslaw (1979, Hamburg)
• St. Matthew Passion (1981, Hamburg)
• Arthurian legend (1982, Hamburg)
• Tristan (1982, Hamburg)
• Giselle (1983, Hamburg)
• End of the line longing (1983, Stuttgart)
• Sixth Symphony by Gustav Mahler (1984, Hamburg)
• Othello (1985, Hamburg)
• As you like it (1985, Hamburg)
• Shall we dance? (1986, Hamburg)
• Fratres (1986, Stuttgart)
• Magnificat (1987, Orange / Paris)
• Peer Gynt (1989, Hamburg)
• Seven Haiku of the Moon (1989, Tokyo)
• Fifth Symphony by Gustav Mahler (1989, Hamburg)
• Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1989, Hamburg)
• Medea (1990)
• Window to Mozart (1991, Hamburg)
• Requiem (1991, Salzburg)
• A Cinderella Story (1992, Hamburg)
• Intermediate Spaces - Ninth Symphony by Gustav Mahler (1994, Hamburg)
• Odyssey (1995, Athens / Hamburg)
• Yondering (1996, Hamburg)
• Opus 100 - For Maurice (1996, Lausanne)
• Vivaldi or What you want (1996, Hamburg)
• Sylvia (1997, Paris)
• Bernstein Dances (1998, Hamburg)
• Messiah (1999, Hamburg)
• Nijinsky (2000, Hamburg)
• Winter trip (2001, Hamburg)
• The seagull (2002, Hamburg)
• Death in Venice (2003, Hamburg)
• The Little Mermaid (2005, Copenhagen)
• Parzival - Episodes and Echo (2006, Baden-Baden)
• Christmas Oratorio (2007, Vienna)
• Le Pavillon d'Armide (2009, Hamburg)
• Purgatorio (2011, Hamburg)
• Liliom (2011, Hamburg)
• Tatjana (2014, Hamburg)
• The Song of the Earth (2015, Paris)
• Duse (2015, Hamburg)
• Turangalîla (2016, Hamburg)
• Anna Karenina (2017, Hamburg)
• Beethoven project (2018, Hamburg)
• The Glass Menagerie (2019, Hamburg)
• Ghost Light (premiere scheduled for September 6, 2020 in Hamburg)

Documentaries

• Nijinsky & Neumeier. A kinship in dance. TV documentary, Germany, 2009, 88 min., Director: Annette von Wangenheim, production: WDR
• John Neumeier - A Life for Dance. Documentary, Germany, 2000, 43:30 min., Script and director: NN , production: BR-alpha

literature

• Horst Koegler: John Neumeier - Pictures of a Life. Edel Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-941378-72-8 .
• John Neumeier: On the move. Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-89910-403-5 , (autobiography).
• John Neumeier: Dream Paths. Verlag Christians, Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-7672-0666-8 .

Web links

Commons : John Neumeier  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• John Neumeier Foundation
• John Neumeier in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
• John Neumeier - Hamburg Ballet
• Nijinsky & Neumeier. A kinship in dance
• WDR 5 (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) Experienced stories from August 4, 2013: 40 years of head of the Hamburg Ballet: John Neumeier, dancer, choreographer, ballet director , author Ingrid von Saldern

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ballet director Neumeier clears up confusion about date of birth. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 19, 2017 ; accessed on February 18, 2017 . 
2. ^ "Nijinsky & Neumeier. A soul mate in dance ” ( Memento from April 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), arte , 2009
3. ↑ The longest-serving feet in Germany. He embodies the male genius figures with historical understanding. ( Memento of March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: FAZ of February 20, 2012, page 30, beginning of the article.
4. ↑ Irmela Kästner: Late purging of another knight skinning knight. In: Die Welt , December 12, 2006.
5. ↑ Almost always in favor of Hamburg Leuchtfeuer : http://www.hamburg-leuchtfeuer.de/2018/05/03/john-neumeiers-benefiz-ballett-werkstatt-in-der-hamburgischen-staatsoper/ .
6. ^ The Foundation - Page of the John Neumeier Foundation, accessed on March 13, 2013.
7. ↑ Stefan Grund: News from John Altmeier. In: Die Welt , April 7, 2009.
8. ↑ Horst Koegler : Diaghilew: Half-time of the festivities around the globe. ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Tanznetz.de , June 17, 2009.  
9. ^ Dance into marriage happiness: John Neumeier (79) marries cardiac surgeons (59) , www.mopo.de from December 21, 2018, accessed on December 21, 2018
10. ^ Foundation Bible and Culture - Awards. Retrieved December 27, 2019 . 
11. ^ Highest Polish cultural order for John Neumeier in: Berliner Zeitung of March 21, 2013, p. 23
12. ↑ derStandard.at - Music theater award: Sweeney Todd of the Volksoper best production . APA notification dated June 8, 2015, accessed June 8, 2015.
13. ↑ Kyoto Prize for John Neumeier , deutschlandradiokultur.de, June 19, 2015
14. ↑ John Neumeier. Receives the Erich Fromm Prize in FAZ on January 28, 2017, page 11
15. ^ Table of contents ( memento of April 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) by arte
16. ↑ Table of contents of musik heute