Friedemann Vogel
Die Seele am Faden / Soul Threads
After Not in My Hands, world dance star Friedemann Vogel returns to to collaborate with visual artist and choreographer Thomas Lempertz, this time to try his hand at choreographing a'opera complete: Die Seele am Faden/Soul Threads. Directed and conceived by the two artists, this new creation is inspired to by Henrich von Kleist's The Puppet Theater with the intention of exploring opposites-how the natural can spring from the unnatural, sensibility from artifice, and grace from a trained body-in a parallel between the puppet and the dancer both interpreters of someone else's vision.
A recipient of the most prestigious awards in dance, Vogel routinely dances on major stages around the world, from La Scala in Milan to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow to the World Ballet Festival in Tokyo, winning over critics and audiences alike. The first soloist of the Stuttgart Ballet, Vogel is celebrated for both his deeply moving interpretations in dramatic ballets and his energetic performances in more contemporary works. Since 2015, he has held the national title of "Kammertänzer," the highest honor for a dancer in Germany.
dance performance with Friedemann Vogel
Based on the text The Puppet Theater by Heinrich von Kleist
conception and direction Thomas Lempertz, Friedemann Vogel
composition and live music Alisa Scetinina (GAISMA)
digital artist Timo Kreitz
sets and costumes Thomas Lempertz
lights Fabiana Piccioli
technical director Stefan Welker
Kleist Forum production
In collaboration with Kleist Museum
Global Arts Link tour producer
Please be advised that dates and times may be subject to change.
See www.festivaldispoleto.com for updates.
Born to Stuttgart, Germany, Friedemann Vogel completed his ballet training at the Princess Grace Academy in Monte Carlo with the John Gilpin Scholarship from Princess Antoinette of Monaco. In 1998, Vogel joined to the Stuttgart Ballet and in 2002 was promoted to first soloist, the highest rank in the company. Vogel participates to in international ballet galas and is a guest artist with such renowned companies as the Mariinsky Theater, Bolshoi Ballet, La Scala Theater, English National Ballet, Chinese National Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, the Ballets of Santiago de Chile, the Finnish National Ballet, the Berlin Staatsballett, the Bayerisches Staatsballett, the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Vienna State Ballet, the Korean National Ballet, and the Lausanne Ballet Béjart. Her extensive repertoire includes from leading roles in the classics and principal roles in works by choreographers ranging from Cranko and Balanchine to Robbins and Kylián, from MacMillan and Neumeier to Forsythe and McGregor. He has won prestigious awards in his career, notably the Erik Bruhn Prize, Eurocity Competition, Léonide Massine Positano Prize, Prix de Maya, and the "Outstanding Performer" Award at the German Dance Prize. Vogel was also named "Best Dancer" by the Italian magazine Danza&Danza in 2011, and was elected "Dancer of the Year" twice by Tanz Magazine, in 2010 and 2019. In 2015 he was awarded the title of "Kammertänzer," the highest honor for dancers in Germany, and in 2021 he was chosen as an ambassador for the International Day of Dance under the patronage of UNESCO.
A visual artist whose practice is firmly rooted in dance, Thomas Lempertz was born to Pforzheim, Germany. After a successful career as a soloist at the Stuttgart Ballet, Lempertz left dance in 2003 to pursue fashion design and was nominated for the "New Faces Award Fashion" in 2011. Since 2013, he has been designing costumes for internationally renowned choreographers. In 2015, he returned to the stage with Greyhounds, a solo created especially for him from Marco Goecke, as part of an Egon Madsen project for former dancers at Theaterhaus Stuttgart. Lempertz's broad interests led him to to pursue studies in Intermedia Arts at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts from 2015 to 2017. Lempertz has also taught art and movement workshops as a guest lecturer at the Stuttgart State Academy of Fine Arts and in a Dance, Choreography and Movement workshop and at the Ludwigsburg Film Academy. Moving steadily between the three integral pillars of his artistic expression-dance, art and costume-Lempertz has gravitated increasingly toward his practice as a visual artist, while remaining true to his approach as a dancer. Major exhibitions include the three solo shows Liquid Skin in 2019, Motion is Solution in 2021 and Liquid Gravity at Galerie Kernweine in 2023, as well as the group shows Inszenierung I Inspiration Tanz und Fotografie at Deutsche Tanzmuseum Köln in 2021 and What I like in 2022 at Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen.
Born in Latvia, she has been involved in music and dance since childhood. At the age of fifteen, she moved to Germany to study at the Ballet Academy. She joined to the Bavarian StateOpera , then the Stuttgart Ballet and toured with both companies. After a six-year career in ballet, she decided to enroll in the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts, investing all her free time in exploring music. From from an early age, in her hometown of Riga, she takes acting and singing classes, as well as to learning to to play piano and violin. She also learned to playing guitar and to producing, quickly developing a passion for analog and old-school equipment that she uses in her live sets today. In addition to her musical work, Scetinina is involved in visual projects. These include analog and digital photography, behind and in front of the camera, as well as collages and video works, which she often relates to music. Symbioses of auditory and visual materials emerge, in which the artist presents herself in an increasingly contemporary form of movement. Opera as a composer, director of photography and performer in her works that oscillate between choreography and improvisation.
Yoann Bourgeois
Hania Rani
Dimitri Chamblas
Kim Gordon
Il Posto / Wanda Moretti
+ Marco Castelli Small Ensemble
Il Posto / Wanda Moretti
+ Marco Castelli Small Ensemble