Äffi

(Combi-Ticket with "The Swan and the Pimp")

Press

“[…] Incredibly, this award-winning choreography by Hanover’s new head of ballet is already 14 years old. It still appears young and fresh but also old and wise at the same time. […] It has everything in it that distinguishes [Goecke’s] choreographic handwriting: the gloomy and brash and fast pace, which the dancer has appropriated. Ant-like, it crawls and quivers and flutters out of his bare torso. The movements defy all roundness and softness, as if his body only had hinges, no spherical joints.”

Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 September 2019

Preview Text

With “Äffi” the award-winning choreographer Marco Goecke came up with a solo that was to become one of his signature pieces. Created in 2005, marking the start of Goecke’s over ten-year period as resident choreographer at the Stuttgart Ballet, the piece has lost none of its power. The dancer expertly embodies Goecke’s sometimes unruly but always haunting and complex movement language to three moving, late-period songs by U.S. country music icon Johnny Cash. The contrast between the breathtaking vitality and energy of the young dancer’s body and the mature bass-baritone of the singer lends “Äffi” a special atmospheric density. The solo, which has proved an inspiration to many dancers and choreographers, is presented at the festival in cooperation with the Hanover State Ballet, which welcomes Goecke as its new director as of the coming season.

(approx. 10 mins)

cast & credits

Choreography, Stage design, Costumes: Marco Goecke
Dancer: Maurus Gauthier
Music: Johnny Cash
Premiere: 18 June 2005, Arnhem