GLANZ & WIDERSTAND

From 11 to 14 June 2025, the production will premiere at the Atelier Gardens in Berlin-Tempelhof, opening the second edition of Dokumentale Berlin, the festival for cross-media documentary storytelling.

What can be seen there deliberately breaks down classic genre boundaries. The production – conceived by choreographers Arshak Ghalumyan and Alexander Abdukarimov – sees itself as performative research: it allows dance, film, music and text to enter into a flowing dialogue, and the audience is invited to move around in the middle of it.

The performance plays with proximity. A direct, physical presence develops between the performers and the audience, unfolding across four scenes – in historic studio halls such as TON 1 and TON 3 as well as in the open air.

Archival material and historical sound documents meet live music, improvisation and deliberately placed breaks. Instead of a chronological biography, an emotional topography is created that reflects Dietrich's many facets: icon and mother, lover and political figure, style icon and uncompromising opponent of the Nazi regime.

The choice of location is more than just a backdrop: the Atelier Gardens, once legendary film studios during the Weimar era and later television locations, are now a creative place of the future.
Their architectural complexity becomes a resonance chamber for the theme: memory, change, new beginnings.

‘GLANZ & WIDERSTAND’ not only breaks down the boundaries between stage and auditorium, but also between the arts. It is an experimental act of approaching a woman whose life stands for artistic independence, personal freedom and political resistance. No nostalgic idealisation, but an impressive plea for attitude – carried by movement, sound and space. A daring venture that touches the heart. And all this in a format that deliberately remains open to the unpredictable. For that is precisely where its power lies.


With:
Anna Freedman-Okuneva, Lucio Vidal, Miguel Angel Collado, Olaf Kollmansperger, Lisa Pavlov, Mihael Belilov, Alexej Orlenco, Naoya Homan, Mariana Gasperin, Javier Pena Vazquez, Mami Fujii, Anastasia Kurkova, Andrej Lakisev

• Choreography: Arshak Ghalumyan & Alexander Abdukarimov
  
• Music: Marlene Dietrich, Lars Danielsson & Leszek Możdżer, Veljo Tormis, Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, Hrachya Harutyunian, and others
  
• Costumes: Franziska Wacke
  
• Dramaturgy: Nicole Kohlmann
  
• Technical direction & lighting design: Joachim Barth
  
• Production & executive director: Oleksandr Shpak
  
• A production of the Berlin Ballet Company,
  
• co-production The Good Media Network GMN GmbH.