The dance solo Die Unbekannte aus der Seine was created in 1941/42 during the National Socialist dictatorship. Paris had been occupied since June 1940 as well. “The wandering about on the bank – the lure of the water – the fear (a fear of continuing to live, greater than that of death)”, Austrian dancer, choreographer and resistance activist Hanna Berger wrote in the libretto of her dance piece to the music of Claude Debussy. The communist born in Meidling, in the 1930s among other things a member of Mary Wigman's touring ensemble, was arrested in Germany in 1942 as a member of the Schulze-Boysen group, escaped the forced labor camp and drifted after the war until her early death in 1962 between Vienna, Paris, Italy, the GDR and other socialist countries, without a permanent home. Her main residence remained Vienna. Die Unbekannte aus der Seine can now be seen again as part of Eva Schaller’s Recalling Her Dance: a choreographic encounter with Hanna Berger. The Viennese dancer has created a work of art in its own right based on Berger’s biography by weaving three works into a special choreography and dramaturgy. She also refers to two other solos by the courageous modern dancer in an adapted form: Krieger from 1937 and Aufruf from 1944.
World Premiere
Duration: 45 Minutes
