A Lesson for the Future

Translation: Victor Hughes
Click HERE for the German version
 

It was a topic that dominated the media’s arts pages for weeks and ultimately culminated in the dismissal of the company’s intendant: the crisis at the Hamburg Ballet. What is now being discussed in the dance scene as well as reporting concerning this rather unique event, reveals, in large part, an unprecedented failure of the press. There was a preference to engage in sensational journalism rather than conduct proper research. Almost daily, one was confronted by a flood of comments and interviews featuring ‘star’ choreographers who, like Jiri Kylian, had not been sighted in Hamburg for many a year - if at all - or, like Aszure Barton, who had only once had contact with the Hamburg Ballet. Nothing substantial or constructive clarified or helped the situation. Was this all perhaps just about ratings and clicks?

In any case, such articles have influenced the mood. Many now claim that, after John Neumeier’s 51-year term of directorship, the company had not given Demis Volpi the time he needed to develop a new concept for the Hamburg Ballet. He had been badly treated; dancers had been stirred up by a few members of the company and were being pressured to bow to the ringleaders. Leading the assault, Sasha Trusch emerged as the only one to openly express in an interview with DER SPIEGEL: "Volpi must go."

The journalist Manuel Brug in DIE WELT reproached these firebrands by writing that it was unacceptable for “salivating soloists” to bully their director in this way: “Are we now supposed to glorify the Neumeier reign, whereby the old master continues, with the help of his satraps and sycophants, to surreptitiously pull strings.” Continuing, he wrote that no one could possibly have any interest in turning the Hamburg Ballet into a “Neumeier Performing Museum” and that Hamburg's Senator for Culture, Carsten Brosda, should ensure that, in the future, “no young, possibly naive contender, ends up on the pyre of discontent”. 

Speculation ran rampant: Was this a “witch hunt”, asked Peter Laudenbach (who has never been seen at a ballet performance in Hamburg), quoting “established ballet directors from other houses” in the SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG? Without naming names, of course.

Wild rumours spread without a shred of evidence. Had John Neumeier, himself, been pulling strings behind the scene and orchestrating an “ugly production”, or even an intrigue, as Florian Zinnecker and Stella Schalamon claimed in DIE ZEIT? Evidence? None. Incidentally, John Neumeier has never once commented on Demis Volpi's work, nor has he given an interview regarding the events. All enquiries on this matter have come to nothing. 

Above all the murmuring it was forgotten what this was really about: the quality of a company of international repute. At stake was the continuing cohesion of the ensemble and the survival of Neumeier’s unparalleled oeuvre of over 170 dance creations, most of them of the highest calibre. The Hamburg Ballet crisis was brought about by a majority of the dancers. They rebelled against their new director with accusations of artistic incompetence, a toxic working atmosphere and neglect of the ensemble. It was about the future of the Hamburg Ballet; they, the dancers, decidedly did not wish to end up in a state of mediocracy. The dancers stood up for this, some even sacrificing financial security or putting their reputations on the line.

It all started with curiosity and joy

And yet, it had all begun so promisingly. In the summer of 2024, the ensemble welcomed the new artistic director with open arms. They were ready to embrace something new and were thirsty for other artistically demanding choreography. Indeed, this wish was fulfilled by the first ballet evening under Volpi's directorship, ‘The Times are racing’, consisting of dance pieces by four choreographers: Pina Bausch, Hans van Manen, Justin Peck and Demis Volpi himself - although his piece ‘The thing with feathers’ was the weakest.

With the December premiere, a certain disillusionment set in: The opening piece, the sixty-minute world premiere of Aszure Barton's ‘Slow Burn’ did not do justice to the artistic potential the Hamburg Ballet has to offer. Nor did the second part of the evening, ‘Blake Works V (The Barre Project)’ by William Forsythe make up for this. Forsythe's technically challenging style proved to be no problem for the well-trained Hamburg dancers (who for this now have been nominated for the FAUST 2025 award). The fact that the performances sold well was due mainly to the Hamburg audience's curiosity for something new.

By this time a certain unrest spread within the ensemble. Dancers were dissatisfied with the artistic supervision: the new first ballet master, Damiano Pettenella, has little or no experience of Neumeier's creations which still dominated the programme, but is responsible for rehearsing the soloists. Rehearsal planning is controlled from Spain (!) by someone who does not know the ensemble, nor is able to estimate how much time the ballets or sections thereof require. Often it is not known who is supposed to dance which role and when. Moreover, Demis Volpi was not as present in the ballet studio as the company would have expected of him and as Neumeier was accustomed to do.

Chronology of a crisis

Perhaps it is advisable to review the chronology of events in order to understand what happened and what was really at the heart of the matter:

At the beginning of April 2025, it was announced that a total of five of the eleven principal soloists would be leaving the company: Jacopo Bellussi (taking over the direction of the dance festival in Nervi and guesting with the Toulouse Ballet), Alessandro Frola (moving to Alessandra Ferri at the Staatsoper Vienna), Christopher Evans (joining the Staatsballett Karlsruhe (although this was not known at the time), Madoka Sugai (who had accepted an engagement with the Boston Ballet; also not clear at the time) and Sasha Trusch, who voluntarily gave up his permanent contract and to this day, remains without a new engagement. This was a real bombshell. Nothing like this had ever happened in Hamburg before. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that leading members of the company’s administration, including the technical director and the guest performance coordinator, would also be stepping down.

At the beginning of May, a second scandal erupted: 36 of the 63 dancers of the Hamburg Ballet signed an urgent letter to Hamburg's Senator for Culture, Carsten Brosda. It stated that the artistic heritage was not being properly cultivated,that the rehearsal schedule failed to take into account the requirements of Neumeier's works in particular; and that eight months into the season, the artistic standard had already declined significantly. Further: the current management was characterised by poor communication, a lack of transparency and a disparaging attitude towards the company, even to the point of creating a toxic working atmosphere. There was a lack of a technical understanding of ballet and an artistic vision. Many other members of the ensemble were already considering resigning. The letter suggested cooperating with the cultural authorities in order to find an alternate strategy. The dancers would remain open and highly motivated to any valid artistic solution, but not at the expense of what had already been achieved.

This letter was sent to the media at the same time, and it exploded like a bomb. Volpi immediately denied the allegations. The cultural authorities hastily set about organising mediation talks between the artistic director and his company.

Chain reactions

Sasha Trusch was the only one who dared to come out and expose himself in this situation. In interviews with NDR, the HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT and DER SPIEGEL, he said that it had quickly became clear that the team Volpi had brought with him was working “at a low level”, Volpi himself is “a dazzler”. He is very good at selling his vision, but the quality he delivers is “subterranean”. After that, things got hotter. 

13 May: The Hamburg rebels received unexpected support from Düsseldorf. Seventeen dancers of the Ballett am Rhein, Volpi's former ensemble, in a letter to the Hamburg Senator for Culture expressed their solidarity with the Hamburg dancers and backed up the accusations from their own experiences: Volpi's tenure there had been characterised by “inconsistent communication, a lack of transparency and an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty”. For many, the experience with Volpi was “not only discouraging, but also traumatic”. In Düsseldorf, Volpi exhibited the same behaviour patterns as in Hamburg. He “has no idea” about dance, said So-Yeon Kim-von der Beck, a member of the Ballett am Rhein from 2009 to 2022, in an interview with the HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT.

24 May: DER SPIEGEL came up with the next sensation: Demis Volpi had allegedly humiliated the minor 17-year-old ballet student Azul Ardizzone, in such a way that she subsequently required psychotherapeutic assistance. Azul, two years earlier at the age of 15, had made a sensational debut as Juliet in Neumeier's ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The deputy director of the Hamburg Ballet School, Gigi Hyatt, who was present during the conversation, had not protected her student, but instead allowed Volpi's comments to go unchallenged.

The last straw: the risk assessment

At this point the cultural authorities apparently became so alarmed that they initiated a ‘risk assessment survey’: an anonymous survey of the entire ensemble which was not actually planned until 2026. This survey focuses on the working atmosphere and the current situation at the Hamburg Ballet. 

25 May: Volpi conducts a ballet workshop offering a first glimpse of his ballet ‘Demian’ scheduled for 6 July. This was to have been his first full-length piece for the Hamburg Ballet. Appearing on stage, he is booed: ‘Go home!’ someone shouts from the auditorium. It is the beginning of the end.

28 May: The Hamburg Ballet's press office announces the postponement of the premiere of ‘Demian’ to the next season on 7 December. Instead, Volpi's last piece for the Ballett am Rhein, ‘Surrogate Cities’ would replace it. The reason given is that the management wants to devote sufficient time and attention to the initiated change process and the intensive discussions. 

6 June: The results of the risk assessment survey are being assessed. It is rumoured that they have been disastrous for Demis Volpi. There is no further information.

7 June: The Hamburg Ballet performs Neumeier's ‘Death in Venice’ to great acclaim at the Salzburg Festival. The fact that Demis Volpi has not accompanied the company is a sign of things to come.

10 June: The moment has come: the cultural authorities announce that they had reached an agreement with Demis Volpi on the termination of his contract with the Hamburg Ballet. Part of the agreement stipulated that the results of the risk assessment survey would remain confidential. Volpi's ‘The Thing with Feathers’ would remain in the repertoire as part of the ballet evening ‘The Times are Racing’. The Hamburg premiere of ‘Surrogate Cities’ on 6 July, which was to mark the start of the Ballet Days, was cancelled. The upcoming Ballet Days and the next season would be rescheduled. Lloyd Riggins, John Neumeier’s former deputy and guardian of his legacy, Gigi Hyatt, deputy director of the ballet school, and Nicolas Hartmann, the ensemble's managing director, would serve as interim directors. 

[Author's note: At the request of the Hamburg cultural authorities, the sentence referring to the compensation paid to Demis Volpi was deleted, as this - according to the statement - does not correspond to the actual amount, which was not disclosed].

What are the lessons to be learned?

Demis Volpi’s dismissal has not only damaged him, but also the large selection committee that recommended him. The committee included Tamas Detrich (ballet director in Stuttgart), Ted Brandsen (director of the Dutch National Ballet), Brigitte Lefèvre (former dancer, choreographer and ballet director at the Paris Opera), Dorion Weickmann (dance journalist and editor-in-chief of the magazine ‘tanz’), Ashley Wheater (artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, Chicago) and Gigi Hyatt (deputy director of the ballet school of the Hamburg Ballet) and the members of the Supervisory Board of the Hamburg State Opera Michael Behrendt, Monika Hess and Elke Weber-Braun, as well as Hans Heinrich Bethge, Head of Culture at the Ministry of Culture and Media. But, above all, the reputation of the Senator for Culture himself, as their chairman, has suffered. This committee stands accused of not having done sufficient research in Demis Volpis’ appointment. They did not inspect his work carefully enough and they did not ask enough questions – otherwise the serious problems of the company in Düsseldorf would have come to light.

Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from this disaster is that a large company with high artistic standards should not be directed by a single person – following in the footsteps of the patriarch John Neumeier. Or rather, it can only be led by the right person, who does not have to be a jack of all trades. This was already demonstrated by the Stuttgart Ballet, where, after John Cranko's death in 1973, Glen Tetley as his successor failed and Marcia Haydée was persuaded to take over. At the time, she had hardly choreographed anything, but she had her connections, her own ballet family and, like no other, was committed to Cranko's legacy. Haydée brought calm to the ensemble, engaged big names and restored confidence in its abilities.

Perhaps the Hamburg Ballet needs a similar personality who knows and appreciates John Neumeier and his oeuvre, but who is also able to persuade today's interesting choreographers to work with the Hamburg Ballet; a personality who has a generous love for the ensemble and the ability to delegate tasks. Heather Jurgensen, who has successfully directed the Kiel Ballet together with her husband Yaroslav Ivanenko since 2011, would be a suggestion. She danced with the Hamburg Ballet from 1989 to 2007, most of that time as a principal dancer. From her own experience she is familiar with Neumeier's most important creations, and she is young and yet experienced enough to be able to take on such a major leadership role.

Outdated timidity

Another lesson is that yesterday’s timidity is outdated and that democratic working models with flat hierarchies are more in keeping with the times. An ensemble that stands together, is committed to quality and argues convincingly in order to bring about the dismissal of its director, demonstrates courage and intelligence rather than insolence and hubris. The motto ‘Together we are strong’ has rarely been more apt. Consequently, the Senator for Culture has promised to involve the dancers in the search for a new artistic director. Other companies should see this as an encouragement.

Carsten Brosda will have to rethink things even more. He had planned it all so beautifully: The young triumvirate he had engaged for Hamburg consisting of the new intendant of the opera (Tobias Kratzer), the new general music director (Omer Meir Wellber) and Demis Volpi, was supposed to restore the Hamburg State Opera to its former glory. At a press conference, the three were presented with great aplomb as saviours and innovators. One of the three pillars now has fallen. This is all the more painful, because the ballet, with its high seating capacity utilisation for ballet performances, has been the cash cow of the Hamburg State Opera. It is also the Hanseatic city's most important cultural ambassador and, in a sense, subsidises the, presently, less successful opera. In view of such an uncertain future, building a brand-new opera house for the anticipated hefty sum of 1 billion euros in the diaspora of the Hamburg harbour, on the difficult-to-access Baakenhöft site, is more than daring. It borders on megalomania, even if the lion's share is being sponsored by Klaus Michael Kühne.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for the Hamburg Ballet. It is still unclear what its contribution to the Dance Triennial, which takes place in Hamburg next year, will be. A tip to those responsible: ask the Hamburg Ballet dancers ...