The dance company of Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater inspires the audience with the new piece "Aqua".

The fact that dance and water can combine in an exciting way is by no means a new experience. And also the dance company of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau has already had some experience with this, for example in the choreography of Wagner Moreiras in 2012 at "Bach bewegt".

At the premiere of "Aqua" this weekend at the Theater Görlitz, water is omnipresent. And the two bosses of the company, the choreographers and dancers Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert have managed together with everyone to relate to the source of life so devotedly that it is a lustful, loving, wondering game. Where the ideas only bubble up, duels or also a pleasurable splashing, a water art show as well as a shrewdly squeaking duckling parade belong to it. And just this humid-happy cleaning power, which is downright contagious with its cheerfulness. In the fabulous stage design by Britta Bremer, the bathtub suspended above the water surface proves to be a crazy feature. The bathtub is both a domicile and an asylum and allows an under-view of the seemingly floating, swinging object. In this abundance, it is by no means striking when, at the end, a couple surrendering to the water is suddenly flooded by the translucent wall of plastic bottles. And the two are confronted with this flotsam and jetsam, as it were, as creatures of the water, as is the audience. This is a coherently constructed event from the beginning, with a fisherman who laboriously fishes out the bottles as a dry exercise and curiously tries to transport them by using his body. And compelling is ultimately the association, for the water also to take responsibility.

The language of movement in the evening, as in other pieces by Pelleg/¬Weigert, seems exhaustingly athletic and action-packed. Which is no disadvantage in "Aqua", even if some scenes could be a bit tighter and more streamlined. But in the end, the interwoven, narratively versatile stories come together to form a coherent whole. And the audience also appreciates this, celebrates the company with much, much applause, is clearly proud of such a powerful crowd, which is truly devoted in the water with life.

. It is no accident that the program booklet quotes Thales of Miletus: "The principle of all things is water; out of water is everything, and into water everything returns."