Last season at the Hamburg Ballet was very productive for Anna Lauder. “We celebrated 50 years since John Niemeyer has been the director. The repertoire was very wide – we had 22 different shows. I danced in over 80 shows last year. We had different tours – to Chicago, Tokyo, Venice, Baden-Baden and Salzburg,” says ballet dancer.
When asked how she once met Neumeier, the first soloist of the Hamburg Ballet frankly admits: “Actually, I didn’t know who he was. I didn’t have that information. Then, when I went to check out the school there, I realized that I didn’t want to be there, that I was a child of the house .However, my mother persuaded me. When I realized who he is and how lucky I am in life to have found my choreographer… I was in the right place at the right time.
Through Niemeier’s works, through his heroes, characters, I have gotten to know myself more and more, my qualities. For him, less is more. He expects you to find your true feelings, and not to exaggerate something.
He has many different ballets – from very modern to classical – a very wide spectrum. Brilliant man!”
2023/2024 2018 season will be the last for the artistic director and main choreographer of the ballet. Lauder is sorry for that, but glad that Niemeier’s repertoire will remain in the theater. “We hope that the changes will be gradual and not drastic,” she adds.
By the way, the season opener will once again be held at the Hamburg Town Hall. Anna Lauder remembers that last year it was a very well-attended event and people were already waiting in line in the morning to get seats. What this year’s program will be – the troupe will find out at the general meeting, where the dancers will be introduced to the newcomers, as well as the selected soloists and the first soloists. But what is it like to be the first soloist in a ballet? “It’s a big responsibility, you have to be ready, always in shape, know all the steps,” explains Lauder. Her husband, Edwin Revazov, born in Sevastopol, is also the first soloist of the Hamburg Ballet.
They learned about the war in her husband’s homeland in Ukraine while on tour in America. “One evening we realized what we could do from our side – we came up with the idea that we could make a choreography, find a theater (of course, this is very difficult at the last moment) and help at least some dancers to forget for a moment, for a moment there is something where else but in horror. At the beginning, the stars aligned and we had five dancers, and the Hamburg Ballet dancers helped. This project came about with a lot of support from John Neimeier and the sponsors, and also the dancers of the troupe,” shares Anna Lauder. “Then the Hamburg Chamber Ballet was founded. We have dancers with different stories.
One dancer himself was in the war for three months. Each has a heartbreaking story. We try our best. Hopefully the troupe will crumble and we will be able to help as long as the war lasts. There is an idea that we will be in Latvia in the near future.”
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2023-08-18 15:42:55
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