TODAY 18 YEARS AGO, our former Artistic Director Reid Anderson brought Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering to Germany. After persistent efforts, the Stuttgart Ballet became the first German ensemble to receive permission from the Jerome Robbins Trust to dance the masterpiece. To the music of Frédéric Chopin exquisite dances unfold on the stage. Like a group of friends, the dancers come together to the strains of mazurka, waltz and etudes. Their encounters speak volumes, but Jerome Robbins affirmed that for him it was simply about a group of dancers dancing. Although the American all-round choreographer could certainly pack stories into steps, he wanted to concentrate entirely on movement and music when he created Dances at a Gathering in 1969. Born out of a single pas de deux, this profound ballet was created as if improvised to music at that very moment, as if carried by friendship and the joy of dance.

Photo: Jason Reilly and Alicia Amatriain/Sue-Jin Kang in Dances at a Gathering, © Stuttgart Ballet