Travel Diary: Hamburg
- Ellie
- Jul 5, 2019
- 10 min read
Updated: Jul 14, 2019
What an exciting two weeks it's been! Coming to Hamburg, I really had no idea what to expect. I flew here on the word of a friend, expecting to stay at his friend's apartment (who was a total stranger to me) and watch a ton of ballet performances during the Hamburg Ballet Days.
I've never been to Germany before nor did I speak any German, so I was a bit apprehensive (but definitely excited!) to spend two weeks completely out of my comfort zone. As this trip comes to an end, I can absolutely say that there've been ups and downs, memorable experiences, some really lonely days, and some incredible performances.
(Note: This article is separated into three sections: Week One, Week Two, and Nijinsky Gala.)
Week One
Upon landing here in Germany, my first realization was a very important one: I have absolutely no clue how to speak German. This may seem obvious, but I guess I'd ignored that fact until I arrived and was surrounded by hordes of busy Germans going about their lives. Having my mom by my side these initial days was definitely reassuring, and I didn't realize how much her familiar presence comforted me until later during the week.
While she was here, we tried to do as much sightseeing as possible since it was unclear how much free time I'd have later and/or how safe it was to travel alone. We went to Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model railway, and the Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall.
This was also when I discovered one of the main problems of not knowing a country's language: I couldn't read the menus. Sometimes, they had English ones available, but for some reason my self-conscious and embarrassed self couldn't pluck up the courage to ask for one. Luckily, my mom was a little more self-confident than me, and we had a great breakfast after this picture was taken!
We also met my host, Xue, for the first time! She was super nice and friendly and helped us get tickets for the premiere performance of the Hamburg Ballet Days, Shakespeare - Sonnets. At the end of the piece, I found out that I'd been sitting next to the three choreographers (Marc Jubete, Aleix Martinez, and Edvin Revazov) the whole time!
Afterwards, my mom and I stopped by a a small sausage joint in a subway station, and I was a little sad that she was leaving the day after to go home. My mom has always been my partner-in-crime (and an incredible photographer) for adventuring around new cities and trying new foods, and I didn't want to take on all the exploring myself. With her, I always feel like we find the best parts of a city and leave with the best documentation possible too. Shoutout to you Merm; you're the best :)
The next morning, I moved into Xue's apartment, which would be my home for the next two weeks. I was instantly amazed by the coffee table, which has a slidable top so that the interior can be filled with snacks.
I also took my first class with the company, a short 45-minute warmup, and my first ballet class in two weeks. It was, unsurprisingly, a little rough. I ended up taking seven company classes in total.
It's always so interesting to see what professional dancers wear during class, since I'm used to a leotard and tights, perhaps with some trash-bag shorts or a Theraband tied around the waist. Here, people wore ballet tights refashioned into shrugs, pants, skirts, and all sorts of warmups. I also saw one guy wear a onesie during rehearsal, but the teacher made him take it off :( There was a large range of heights and body shapes and ways of movement, which was really encouraging to see. Especially among the soloists, all of them had their own distinctive styles of dancing.
I was a little intimidated by the petit allegro and grand allegro combinations, but perhaps that's because I've always been a bit insecure about my jumps. I learned that it's normal to put on pointe shoes for the center combinations (but switch to flat shoes for jumps?), which I was unused to doing. Well actually, I'm unused to doing any center combinations.
Despite my occasional insecurities, I enjoyed the classes a lot! In this unfamiliar place surrounded by unfamiliar people, it was definitely comforting to go to a studio – which always feels a bit more like home, wherever it may be – and take refuge in the movements I've done for years.
Recently, I watched a YouTube video that mentioned that class is a time to work on and improve your technique, not a time to prove something to anyone. Although people will probably judge, don't worry about their opinions since you're there to work on yourself. (Unrelated content, just a thought that stuck with me.)
I watched rehearsals and the performance of Bernstein Dances, a ballet about the life of the composer Leonard Bernstein. I really enjoyed this piece because the dancers sang a few songs ("What a Waste" and "Go Back Where You Came From"), and the music was beautiful. I've never seen ballets where the dancers made sound onstage nor any with opera singers, but John Neumeier's ballets incorporated these and more.
I was also mindblown to see Alina Cojocaru rehearse right in front of me. It's odd to find out that the people we idolize and admire are simply humans just like the rest of us, and to see them in person is such a surreal experience I'll never forget. I also met Ida Praetorius, principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet, although I didn't know who she was until later. Upon first meeting her, we simply exchanged greetings and hugs and chatted on the way to class. She was really friendly and talked to me like a colleague, which I still can't wrap my mind over. Svetlana Lunkina, principal dancer with the National Ballet of Canada, did the same thing.
One common thread I noticed among these three dancers was that they all have exceptionally kind and expressive eyes. I'm not sure if this was coincidence or something else, but they all exuded friendliness and kindness in a way that made me feel instantly comfortable (even if I was slightly intimidated).
I also watched Anna Karenina from backstage since there were no tickets left. Although I normally watched stage rehearsals from the same place, it was oddly exhilarating to know how close I was to the dancers and the stage while remaining out of sight from the audience. This was one of my favorite performances of all the ones I watched, and I even read the book (864 pages!) and watched the movie.
I haven't finished a book that long in quite a while, but lack of Wi-Fi and frequent isolation left me plenty of time. Since rehearsals often lasted four hours or more, I took occasional breaks from watching. I also ate lunch by myself most days, since I didn't want to enter existing friend groups, and Xue's rehearsal schedule resulted in eating lunch at irregular hours or not eating it at all.
And finally it was the weekend! On Saturday, we had a lunch party with Xue's friends, Mengting, Matias, and his mom. There was so much food, which was a pleasant surprise since my eating schedule had been quite irregular. We left for the shows around 5 or 6 PM and returned at 11 PM, so we ate some yogurt and cereal instead of an actual dinner before heading to bed.
Xue's husband, Benji, grilled steak, lamb cutlets, pork, cheese sausages, and chicken wings. There was also garlic bread, baked potatoes, and a variety of soft drinks to choose from. I was amazed at how many languages were spoken simultaneously: English, Chinese, German, and Spanish (Matias is Argentinian). I normally think of different languages as a barrier to communication, but I realized it doesn't have to be. Even though people knew that others wouldn't understand what they were saying, they spoke in their native language anyways and someone would inevitably translate the message for the rest of the table. Overall, there was a strong feeling of friendship and camaraderie that made me feel like I was part of the community for the first time.
Week Two
By the time the second week rolled around, I felt a little homesick. Despite figuring out how to navigate the ballet center and the theatre, the canteen food I ate for lunch everyday made me miss home-cooked food. (Is this what it's going to be like in college?) I did start taking the bus and subway myself in the mornings to get to the theatre, which helped me feel a bit more like an adult who has her life together.
I also finally started to make friends!! At a guest performance from Het Nationale Ballet, company members from Hamburg Ballet could obtain tickets for the show, so I sat by a few of them and finally struck up a conversation. I met Charlotte from Houston, Graeme from Canada, and Marià from Spain. Everyone in the company had such international lives; since many of them left home early to train in a professional school, they were used to traveling around different countries and finding their own paths.
Marià, for example, was born in Spain but moved to London to study at the Royal Ballet School. As a result, he had the coolest Spanish/British accent I've ever heard. Airi is a German-born Japanese, but she lived in the United States until middle school and then moved to Hamburg to train professionally.
On Wednesday, we had a surprise farewell party for Mayo, a soloist with the company who's going to Houston Ballet next year. She shares a dressing room with Xue, so she was one of the first people I met.
Before the party, I went to Matias's apartment for a bit, where I met his two adorable cats. There were cat sculptures and pictures of him and his boyfriend David everywhere which were really cool too.
The party was a huge success! Mayo's expression was priceless when she saw all of us, (most of the company came), and she kept crying and saying "what the f***" over and over. This was also where I made more friends!! I talked to Airi a lot about high school and Costco, and I had to pick bugs off her legs multiple times since she was terrified of them. Towards the end of the night, we were both freezing, so Marià gave me his booties to wear and Airi his tights. I also put on a blazer from Sasha, who brought a huge cake because it was his 30th birthday.
The next day, I felt newly emboldened in my new friendships and went to a Japanese restaurant with Mayo, Marià, Sasha, and Graeme for lunch. What a relief it was to finally eat something other than canteen food! I also watched Madoka and Sasha in Don Quixote at night, which was my absolute favorite performance in the time I was here. In fact, it's definitely up there in my top two favorite performances. (The other one being Lucia Lacarra in the White Swan pas de deux at the YAGP gala.)
Madoka was the perfect person to play Kitri, since her jumps are absolutely insane. She jumps higher than all the boys during class, and she can do double tours better than some of them too! Her turns were also spectacular, and she balanced into a triple pirouette at the very end of Kitri's first variation. Rudolf Nureyev's version of Don Quixote was technically difficult but artistically splendid, and I caught myself smiling in the dark many times during the performance.
I also had some time to walk around the city before performances, so I checked out Planten un Blomen, a botanical park. I spent a lot of time at Urban Outfitters, which had the distinct advantage of being right next to the theatre and offering free Wi-Fi.
Around this time, guest performers for the Nijinsky Gala also started to show up. Four people from the National Ballet of China came, one of them being Fei Bo. In the beginning, I felt quite nervous to see him again, since I didn't know if he would still recognize me after so many years. Back then, I was a very skinny, very good ten-year-old, and now I'm just...meh. To my great surprise and relief, he not only recognized me but remembered my family (he asked about Jake!!) and my friends (Amy and Nini). We watched the Brahms/Balanchine program together and talked at intermission, and he was super nice to me and added me on WeChat. We also took a picture together at his suggestion, which emboldened me to ask Svetlana (also watching the performance) for a picture with her too (shown above). I often think about what would happen if I weren't so in my head and anxious about what others think about me, but I'm pretty sure I would have more pictures from these two weeks than I do now.
For example, I wanted to take pictures at Mayo's surprise party and at the Japanese restaurant, but I was too afraid of asking the other people around me. Sigh.
Nijinsky Gala
The day for the famed Nijinsky Gala finally arrived! This performance is normally 5-6 hours long, and many guest dancers from all over the world are invited. It sells out about half a year in advance, but soloists and principals each get one ticket to invite someone.
For John Neumeier's works, the gala included excerpts from Bernstein Dances, Shall We Dance, Anna Karenina, Liliom, A Midsummer Night's Dream, For Maurice, Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler, and more. Even though I'd already seen many of the pieces, it was interesting to see different company members play the principal roles. I'd also watched rehearsals for Shall We Dance many times in the studio, so it was very exciting to see it onstage with the full costumes and set.
For Maurice was especially touching because Carsten Jung, the main dancer, was retiring at the end of this season. At the end of the piece, many of the company dancers came out from backstage to give him a rose, and he had a sizable bouquet by the time they all finished.
I also loved included Permanent Yesterday by Fei Bo, because it had a similar feel as the pieces he choreographed when he came to my dance school years ago.
After the gala, I headed backstage to watch John Neumeier promote dancers for the next season. This was an incredibly touching event, because it's evident how happy and relieved the promoted dancers are. Alongside Madoka, an Italian dancer called Jacopo was promoted to principal dancer as well. During the Hamburg Ballet Days, he'd been suffering from a half-ruptured hip and took many pain medications to get him through the heavy performance season. Although it was a gamble to push his body that far, it paid off in the end and he was overwhelmed with joy.
In the end, I'm so happy I went to Hamburg this summer! From being able to watch John Neumeier and the other teachers work with the company dancers in rehearsals to sitting mere inches from the performers during a live performance, this was an amazing and unique opportunity. Thank you so much to Xue for letting me stay in her apartment and follow her around to class and rehearsals every day, and of course a huge thanks to all the company members who welcomed me with open arms.
Above all, thank you so much to Dao for sending me to Hamburg this summer and opening me up to a whole new side of ballet that I never knew existed. Because of his kindness and generosity, I was able to meet incredible dancers and learn just a little bit about company life.
These past two weeks have been a continuous source of learning and inspiration, and I can't wait to get back into the studio to start working on myself again. Till next time, Hamburg!
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