A Timeless Narrative

The German-born artist stages the St. John Passion through her choreography as a timeless narrative about the human search for truth and justice beyond its religious implications.

Bach composed the work in 1724 at the beginning of the very century at the end of which »the gloomy festival of punishment was dying out« (Michel Foucault: »Discipline and Punish«). While Bach still sets the myth of the Christian Passion to music in all its brutality, in Western societies and »the body as the main target of penal repression« gradually disappeared and yet the »hold on the body did not entirely disappear, (…) it is always the body that is at issue – the body and its forces, their utility and docility, their distribution and subjugation«.

Sasha Waltz's choreography deals with the entanglements of suffering and hope, violence and rebellion in the St. John Passion. She illustrates how our bodies still form surfaces on which (in)justice is inscribed and expressed, how the positioning within space is still an expression of our search for justice; the term »right« can be used in the sense of direction or a right in the legal sense. Not only the universal language of Bach's music, but also that of dance can build bridges and give hope in times of economic and political crisis. To this end, Sasha Waltz will bring 10 dancers, the choir, the soloists and the orchestra together in movement on stage in her »Johannes-Passion«.