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A farewell silver birthday gala
Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert shaped Saxony's dance culture for 13 years – now they celebrated their farewell from Görlitz with a grand dance gala.

The founders of the Wee Dance Company Marko E. Weigert and Dan Pelleg in "The Box" from Schmetterlingsdefekt (2011). PHOTO: NIKOLAI SCHMIDT

By Andreas Herrmann
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At the time, the appointment seemed courageous. Now the dismissal has come as a surprise and has been met with much disapproval and resentment in Görlitz. No other Saxon dance company is as popular and as present in the local community as Görlitz. Its two formative figures, Marko E. Weigert and Dan Pelleg, founded their Wee Dance Company in Berlin 25 years ago and now, after 13 years, celebrated a moving farewell to the Görlitz City Theatre and its audience – with a premiere entitled "Silver – A Quarter Century of Dance" as an impressive birthday gala.

Despite all the melancholy and three gala performances that were as packed as they were celebrated, there was no public bad-mouthing between the theatre management and the company directors. This is despite the fact that the decision not to continue the contracts and to put the contracts out to tender for "different and new artistic impulses for our audiences and the company" was made a whole year ago, and that the department was given a fantastic final season, so that despite the pandemic and the water damage, the company now boasts 30 productions of its own, 20 of them full-length. Add to that all the operatic flourishes – often the most impressive part of the show.

But first things first: in 2011, the year of the merger of the Görlitz Music Theatre and the Gerhart-Hauptmann Theatre in Zittau, artistic director Klaus Arauner brought Marko E. Weigert to Görlitz as dance director and Dan Pelleg as chief choreographer. They had already earned their merits both on the independent scene and here at the theatre. Together with Sebastian Ritschel, then a young and highly ambitious chief dramaturge and in-house director (later opera director in Radebeul, now artistic director in Regensburg), they rescued Moritz Eggert's world premiere of "Linkerhand" in 2009.

Their "Butterfly Defect" – their debut production as a revival at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theatre – had already won an award in the episode "The Box". Here they danced themselves with impressive dynamism. Even then it was clear that all their creations were characterised not only by a unique style of dance and an impressively wide range of music, but also by perfection in lighting, video and sound design.

Above all, however, a philosophical breadth pervades their thematic roundelay: in addition to the non-linear dynamics with unpredictable consequences of even the smallest movements, the sensuality of water, the everyday three minutes of love. En passant, we experience Wittgenstein's language puzzles, Foucault's delusions of reason or Fromm's family authoritarianism as starting points, with the choice of music and visuals constantly opening up further mental levels. But they can also tackle Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet – in 2014 with the New Lausitz Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrea Sanguineti.

Moreover, their company is made up of worldwide types who are generally a pleasure to watch at work and who have also been able to present themselves choreographically in the form of their own miniatures at the end of each season. Last summer, for example, they performed "Choris Voces" on the small Neisse island above the viaduct, which served as a bridge and restaurant before the war and the border, with dance pieces to German-language compositions by composers ranging from Schubert and Mahler to van Veen.

Another special feature was impressively demonstrated at the gala: Without the slightest loss of dynamics or expression, Nora Hageneier and Mami Kawabata (the latter as a guest) – both mothers of two children – can be experienced on stage. Hageneier shines in "Happily Ever After" to Cohen's "Hallelujah" in a duet with Pelleg featuring numerous outlandish lifts as a reminiscence of 2011, when the piece had its world premiere in the Sophiensäle at the end of the 20th Berlin Dance Days. Kawabata's wonderful bathtub scene is a reference to Görlitz's most successful production, "Aqua", which ran from 2015 to 2019 as a sparkling water piece (free of any synchronised swimming affectations). Two other pieces could not be reproduced due to their spectacular stage sets: "Alpha 1" from 2013 was a scaffolding dance of the third dimension in a large cube, in which no dancer touched the floor for 90 minutes, but "iHome" (2019) – as well as " Wonderland" (2019) and "Phoenix" (2021) – also impressed even only with their stunning stage designs (often by Britta Bremer).

These professional qualities are complemented by personal ones: Their open-minded approachability culminates in post-show discussions on stage with everyone involved. What's more, they identify with the location of Görlitz, the problematic centre of one of the most precarious districts in Germany, as well as with the unbiased recognition and support of Zittau's drama productions and their social commitment, which is not expressed in empty slogans or pamphlets.

Not only have they always been present on the ground, but in the summer of 2023 they were in the midst of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Tel Aviv, where Pelleg's father left his mark as an architect, to avert the democratic worst-case scenario – the disempowerment of Israel's Supreme Court.

The highlight of the last gala in Görlitz, however, was in connection with Sommer Ulrickson, now a choreographer for Claus Guth and also a successful director. The Californian, born in 1973, was once a co-founder of the Wee Dance Company. Now the three of them are presenting their very first piece, "Blocked" from 1999, as a new edition with the original cast: witty, surprising, poetic – the world premiere at the Tanztage in Berlin's Pfefferberg on 3 September is the company's actual day of birth, if public performances are anything to go by.

The founding duo will return in November for a revival of their most recent success, Peter Pan. This is based on the 1950 Bernstein version and, after a protracted battle for the rights, is considered the world's first dance interpretation. In the spring it had been sold out nine times in a row. According to the current programme, after four performances in Görlitz in April 2025, 'Peter Pan' will even make it three more times to Zittau [and six times to Bautzen – wdc], where the two Wee Dancers succeeded in awakening the public's interest in contemporary dance in the first place. It is to be expected that the applause in the autumn will be just as euphoric and the conversations afterwards just as warm and enduring as on that memorable and tearful final day.

Internet:
wee-dance-company.de; g-h-t.de

JUNE 2024___dance 47
görlitz_______
DAN PELLEG/MARKO E. WEIGERT "SILVER - A QUARTER OF A CENTURY OF DANCE"

To turn back time is something many people wish they could do – the wee dance company makes it possible. "There's Time" was the title of one of their programmes at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater Görlitz-Zittau, and part of it can be seen at the 25th anniversary gala: a highly complex "reverse film", shot at the time in the historic library hall of the European city on the Neisse. And it doesn't just turn the course of time (and, with it, the dancers) on its head: Dan Pelleg and Marko E. Weigert also make us aware of our own finiteness in a way that is as exhilarating as it is enigmatic.

The two directors call their anniversary gala "Silver", with which they bid farewell to their arena of activity after 13 years (in the photo: Nora Hageneier, Rafail Boumpoucheropoulos in "Wonderland - like nightly shadows"). And with it, they defy transience once again: together with Sommer Ulrickson, they interpret their play of emplacements "Blockiert" as youthfully fresh as if no "quarter of a century of dance" had passed since the premiere. The fact that this is of course not the case can nevertheless be seen throughout the evening. From "Aqua" to "Phoenix" to "Box" from the successful programme "Schmetterlingsdefekt", the lightness, originality and inventiveness of the dance shows how far the wee dance company has come. There can no longer be any talk of "wee" as in tiny: Everything here is obviously pushing for greatness, and this should now be made possible for the company also in the future.

Hartmut Regitz

Görlitz House again, 1 June; www.g-h-t.de
Photo: Marlies Kross