Dance Art for Tolerance, Artistic Virtuosity, and a Cabinet of Curiosities
Berlin, March 12, 2025 – This Wednesday morning, the Staatsballett Berlin announced the program for the 2025/26 season. Intendant Christian Spuck and his team presented three premieres, including two world premieres, a children's and youth ballet, an evening for young choreographers, as well as a wide-ranging framework and education program. Also present was director Kirill Serebrennikov to provide information about the premiere of Nureyev.
In his third season, Intendant Christian Spuck will present three premieres on the grand opera stages, including two world premieres. With Wunderkammer (October 31, 2025, Komische Oper Berlin @Schillertheater), Artist in Residence Marcos Morau will direct a full-length creation for the company for the first time, exploring the so-called "cabinets of curiosities" that combined the "exotic" and fascinating aspects of science, art, and nature in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Director Kirill Serebrennikov and choreographer Yuri Possokhov are creating the production Nureyev (March 21, 2026, Deutsche Oper Berlin) for the Staatsballett Berlin for the first time outside of Russia. It premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2017 and was removed from the schedule in 2023 due to the ban on propaganda of "non-traditional values." This dance event unites ballet, opera, and theater to pay homage to the life and career of Rudolf Nureyev, an icon of ballet and the art world. As part of the two-part premiere Fearful Symmetries (May 30, 2026, Staatsoper Unter den Linden), Christian Spuck will create a work that makes the rhythmic intensity and energy of John Adams' composition of the same name visually tangible while questioning the ambiguities of power. Additionally, George Balanchine's masterpiece Symphony in C to Georges Bizet's symphony will be showcased, a ballet that impresses with its technical precision, artistic virtuosity, and breathtaking complexity.
Two productions are planned on the stage of the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Ensemble member Dominik White Slavkovský will create a children's and youth ballet titled Chicxulub or The Flea of the Devil (September 20, 2025), inviting whimsical encounters with dinosaurs and over-the-top superheroes. The second edition of the Next Generation format will also present original choreographic creations by dancers of the company.
Repertoire titles at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden include Gods and Dogs with works by Jiří Kylián and Crystal Pite, Swan Lake by Patrice Bart, and Winterreise by Christian Spuck, based on the song cycle of the same name by Franz Schubert in the musical version by Hans Zender. Additionally, the Deutsche Oper Berlin will showcase Minus 16 with choreographies by Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal, as well as A Midsummer Night's Dream by Edward Clug with commissioned music by Milko Lazar.
The education program of the Staatsballett, Tanz ist KLASSE!, will present an evening on the grand stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin with TiK! On Stage in the upcoming season. Inspired by songs from David Bowie, around 100 children and young people from four different schools in Berlin, along with 30 hobby dancers over 60, will explore the theme of identity. In addition to the usual wide-ranging program for children and young people, school classes, families, adults, and people with disabilities, the upcoming season will also see the introduction of a dance project in a children's and youth hospice, as well as a regular dance course suitable for people with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease.
A behind-the-scenes look will continue through the framework program with Premiere talks and a Ballet Class Up Close. Opportunities for exchange will arise during the Ballet discussions, inviting the ensemble and artistic participants for more personal conversations, or at the Forum, where social issues related to stage dance will be discussed.
For those who wish to delve deeper into ballet in Berlin, there will also be an opportunity to do so via the timeline, a digital stage on the Staatsballett's website, starting at the end of this season. There, premieres, individuals, and events from 1742 to the present will be continuously listed in text and images, thus becoming accessible for both interested audiences and future research in the form of a database for the first time in such depth.
Visually, the upcoming season will be characterized by the photographic work of Evelyn Bencicova. The Slovakian is a visual artist specializing in photography and new media, combining her interest in contemporary culture with academic research to create a space where the conceptual meets the visual.
Intendant Christian Spuck emphasizes the program:
“We dedicate this season to what culture can be: a force that connects us, awakens us, and gives us hope. Culture has always been more than a luxury in Berlin. It is a mirror of history and a changing society, a place of encounter and debate, a creative resistance against indifference and desolation.”
Regular ticket sales will begin on May 20, 2025, while members of the Friends' Circle and holders of the dance ticket can purchase tickets starting May 13, 2025, as part of the advance sales