Don Quijote oder Die unglaubliche Geschichte des Sancho Panza

In the organizer's words:

Dance theater by Gregor Zöllig

With music by Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, Henryk Górecki, Jon Hopkins, Charles Ives, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Rolf Liebermann, Léon Minkus and Steve Reich

Gregor Zöllig, director of the Braunschweig Dance Theater, reinterprets what is probably the most famous book in Spanish literature in a world premiere with his dance ensemble and the Braunschweig State Orchestra under the direction of Alexis Agrafiotis: "Don Quixote". The production and choreography are designed as a psychological balancing act between self-discovery and self-deception. Compositions by Louis Andriessen, Michael Gordon, Henryk Górecki, Jon Hopkins, Charles Ives, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Rolf Liebermann, Léon Minkus and Steve Reich provide the soundscape of dreamlike images. The world premiere will take place on November 2 at the Staatstheater Braunschweig.

Don Quixote, the protagonist of the two-part novel written by Spain's national poet Miguel de Cervantes (probably 1547-1616) in the early 17th century, is the prototype of the anti-hero. He fights against windmill blades, which he mistakenly believes to be giants. What are today's windmill blades? Who could be a modern-day Don Quixote? Where is the boundary between poetry and reality, between imagination and reality? These are the central questions of the production, which abstracts the core of the literary classic. In the dance production, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are embodied by both male and female dancers - Giovanni Fumarola and Noriko Nishisdate as well as Mátyás Ruzsom and María Gabriela Luque.

Following benchmark choreographies such as the recent "Carmina Burana" (Gregor Zöllig) and "Körperfestung / Herzog Blaubarts Burg" (Guy Weizman / Roni Haver), "Don Quixote - oder Die unglaubliche Geschichte des Sancho Panza" heralds the tenth anniversary of Gregor Zöllig's directorship of Tanztheater, which will be celebrated in spring 2025 with a dance gala, the revival of the space-blasting production "Die Zeit ist reif" and a "tanzwärts!" festival will be duly celebrated.