Berlin Ballet dancers reject their new bosses

Dancers at Berlin State Ballet have raised a petition to demand the dismissal of the new management team of Sasha Waltz and Johnannes Öhman. This highly unusual protest has gathered 5,000 signatures in a few hours.

You can read and sign it here.

Sample:

Save Staatsballett Berlin!

The Staatsballett Berlin is currently Germany’s largest and Berlin’s only classically trained ballet company. Together with its preceding institutions it has a classical tradition of more than a hundred years. Therefore we, the dancers of the Staatsballett Berlin, reject the appointment of Sasha Waltz and Johnannes Öhman as co-directors of the Staatsballett from the 2019/20 season on.

Unfortunately the appointment has to be compared to an appointment of a  tennis trainer as a football coach or an art museum director as an orchestral director. This decision by Michael Müller and Tim Renner demonstrates their complete ignorance of the traditions and lines of development of dance and ballet in particular. 

Also special mention must be made that such an appointment to be announced publicly three years in advance is not only unheard of in the world of dance but also disruptive and insulting to the company. That this announcement comes in the middle of an election campaign leads us to believe that it is politically motivated rather than artistically, again showing a profound lack of respect for our company, our traditions, our art form, and our audience.