The decision was an easy one to make, the world’s longest serving Ballet-Master said to The Epoch Times, who has been in charge of the Hamburg State Opera Ballet since 1973: “I believe it’s important to stay in one place for a longer period of time, if you are interested in building something that will last longer.”
Works like The Little Mermaid and The Dove could only be achieved with a relationship of trust in the Ensemble.
Neumeier is famous for the body and originality of his works. A biography on the Hamburg Ballet website says he has “continually focused on the preservation of ballet tradition, while giving his works a modern dramatic framework.”
The Hamburg Ballet website describes the artist’s contributions in glowing terms. After the previous director left in 1970, standards deteriorated, they say, “until John Neumeier was appointed ballet director in 1973. Since then, the company has multiplied its performances, acquired a broad and varied repertory of classics and contemporary works, gained some performing spaces outside the opera house, and considerably enlarged the affiliated ballet school.”
Today the Hamburg Ballet is said to have a character all its own, due to Neumeier’s “dramatically oriented aesthetic sense.”
Much of his renown among critics and peers is for his unique interpretation of The Nutcracker, where he diverges from the original Tchaikovsky, and leaves out direct reference to Christmas, which was a central theme of the original.
Among Neumeier’s many awards is the coveted Herbert von Karajan Music Prize, which he received in 2007.
He didn’t want to say what he will work on in the near future, but at 66 years old, did state clearly: “I will create till the end of my days.”
Some excerpts of Neumeier’s works are also available on Youtube. Perhaps as an indication of his popularity in the ballet world, under one video of his interpretation of Death in Venice, one user calling themselves madisonave64, writes: “I would give anything to dance for Neumeier...”
