Geradeaus auf krummen Wegen (Straight ahead on crooked paths)

Place: Schauspielhaus Wuppertal / Pina Bausch Zentrum under construction, Bundesallee 260, 42103 Wuppertal

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Martin Puttke, known to many from his time as ballet director of the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen, tells of his life in 'four German states', including an occupation zone. Four dissonant worlds in which, despite countless conflicts, temptations, existential hostilities, but also thanks to unexpected sponsors and supporters, he has gone straight ahead on seemingly crooked paths. A life in which he was still able to find light in many a shadow, even if it was only a glimmer.

Martin Puttke trained as a dancer at the Berlin State Ballet School from 1962 to 1966. This was followed by an engagement at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and further studies from 1970 to 1975 at the Moscow Theater Academy “GITIS” under Prof. Nikolai I. Tarassow. From 1975, he initially worked as a ballet teacher at the Berlin State Ballet School, and from 1979 and 1981 as artistic director and director.

Under his direction and in collaboration with the outstanding ballet teacher Nina V. Belikova, among others, the Berlin State Ballet School developed into one of the world's leading training institutes at the end of the 1980s and 1990s. Puttke's students include such renowned soloists as Oliver Matz, Brit Rodemund, Mario Perricone, Raimondo Rebeck, Christina MacDermot and Gregor Seyffert.

From 1990 to 1992, he also took over the artistic direction of the ballet of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and from 1995 to 2008 he was ballet director of the Aalto Ballett Theater Essen.

Since 2007, Martin Puttke has been developing a new teaching concept, especially for classical dance, based on his almost 40 years of practical experience as a ballet teacher and a new analysis of contemporary dance didactics and dance methodology in conjunction with the latest findings in neurocognition and biomechanics: DANAMOS Dance-Art-Master-System. Since then, Puttke has been working on the further development of this concept in theory and practice in collaboration with Dr. Bettina Bläsing, Neurocognition and Action-Biomechanics, University of Bielefeld and Dr. sc. Dimitri Volchenkov, Mathematics and Statistics, Texas University, Lubbock, TX, USA, and regularly devotes himself to teaching and training dance teachers in Germany and other European countries according to the “DANAMOS” concept.

On Sunday, October 13 at 11 a.m., Martin Puttke will read from his as yet unpublished memoir Geradeaus auf krummen Wegen (Straight ahead on crooked paths).