It was those first face-to-face encounters in Gelsenkirchen that had a particularly strong influence on the programming for my first season at the Musiktheater im Revier. My aim is to reflect the city’s diversity on stage, to continue to appeal to the existing audience built up over the past, artistically very successful years, and to translate all of this into a season’s programme with a clearly recognisable artistic signature.

I am delighted that, not least thanks to my long-standing connections with other international artists, I have been able to put together a programme that embodies the very diversity I have always hoped for with a permanent dance company: a programme that deliberately expands existing forms of dance and theatre, brings elements of hip-hop culture, as well as influences from other dance traditions such as the Levantine dabke, to the theatre stage, and invites us to discover and celebrate new perspectives. In turn, through these and other collaborations, we also aim to raise the international profile of the company and, by extension, the city.

Together with my team and the ensemble, we want to bring the various communities that make Gelsenkirchen so vibrant into the theatre. This also means bringing themes and styles to the stage that have rarely been represented there before. Community work has long been an integral part of my artistic practice, and building connections within the city is a central priority. After all, our art too reflects the times, the circumstances and the social realities in which it is created.

We want to make the stages at the MiR, as well as other venues in Gelsenkirchen, places characterised by authenticity both on and off stage. Our programme stands for artistic diversity of the highest standard, challenges genre boundaries and opens up new perspectives – for our audience, the city and the future of dance. We would like to experience together with you just how diverse, how immediate and how captivating dance can be. We look forward to it.

Muhammed Kaltuk