The earliest records of dance date back to Italy around 1460 in the form of courtly dances. These are actually considered to be the beginnings of ballet.

In 1533, Catherine de Medici (from Florence in Tuscany, bordering Liguria) brought her love of this art to France. In 1581, the Italian composer Beaujoyeulx created the piece “Ballet Comique de la Reine” for a wedding celebration. The piece lasted five and a half hours and the style was called ballet de cour (court ballet).

In the early days, only men danced, with masks and long costumes – women were forbidden from doing so. It was a privilege to be allowed to dance, so you could say that ballet was a man’s sport. It was only in 1681 that Women were also allowed to dance. The dance movements became more delicate, more graceful, but also more complicated. The technique continued to develop. Only trained dancers were able to perform them. The costumes became lighter, the skirts shorter, so that the feet and their movements could be seen.

Today, ballet is characterised by self-confidence and courage. Emotions are expressed through movement, taboo subjects are transformed into story ballets. Classical pieces are also restaged and mixed with elements of other dances. Contemporary and classical techniques are used on an equal footing.

With a packed programme of culture and events in Genoa, below you will find my personal cultural recommendation, simply perfect moments of dreamlike beauty that I would like to share with you! It has broadened my view of the city and has given me a new form of appreciation. John Neumeier and Neumeier moments! Neumeier is a guarantee that we are on the safe side when it comes to ballet.

Guest performance in Nervi at the Ballet Music Festival – music and ballet potentiate their magical powers of expression

The last guest performance of the Hamburg Ballet’s season is coming up and will take John Neumeier and his company to Genoa. There he will present the last two performances of the Hamburg Ballet under his directorship at the Nervi Music Ballet Festival and bid farewell to this position with his successful ballet “A Midsummer Night’s Dream“.

The guest performance takes place on the initiative of the Genoese and first soloist Jacopo Bellussi, the designated Artistic Director of the Nervi Ballet Festival from 2025. The Nervi Music Ballet Festival continues the great tradition of the historic Nervi Ballet Festival founded by Mario Porcile in 1954, which was one of the most important festivals on the European dance scene until the early 2000s. The Hamburg Ballet has already performed at the Nervi Ballet Festival back in 1996 with the ballets “Odyssey” and “Romeo and Juliet”.

If you fancy a Midsummer Night’s Dream, don’t miss the chance to join dancers from the Hamburg Ballet in bidding farewell to the marvellous John Neumeier!

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Genoa
Performances on 19 and 20 July, both at 9.15 pm
Parchi di Nervi – Villa Grimaldi Fassio | Nervi
Further information & tickets available on the festival website

Is there a boundary between dance and other creative processes?

Over the decades, Neumeier has not only moved in the spirit of the times, but has also helped to shape it in the areas of avant-garde, quality, aesthetics and society. If you go through time with him today, you see him as an enrichment, you also see the political potential and the added value for society.

He raised the aesthetics of representation to a new level. In this way, he always shaped the style of the time and became the modern myth of dance – a world full of glamour and creativity and the expression of the attitude to life of different eras.

Lead image courtesy Nervi Music Ballet Festival