Sasha Waltz: A Portrait

Documentarian Brigitte Kramer's biography on famed German dancer-choreographer Sasha Waltz is organized around a striking exhibition that Waltz mounted in 2013 at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in her native city of Karlsruhe—a highly imaginative installation that represents her desire to break down barriers (in this case between the stage and the museum hall). But through clips from rehearsals and previous productions, as well as archival footage and interviews with Waltz herself, the documentary actually covers much of her career to the present, going back to the 2005 outdoor staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas that her company Sasha Waltz and Guests prepared in conjunction with the Berlin State Opera, which gave rise to Waltz's passion for what has come to be called choreographed opera. A Portrait is complemented here by Kramer's earlier Garten der Lüste, an hour-long companion piece chronicling Waltz's earlier career, from her training in Amsterdam and New York up through her years in Berlin, where she established the troupe that embodied her vision of melding dance and theater and achieved international renown. Taken together, these two films offer an insightful and enlightening portrait of one of our most innovative contemporary choreographers. DVD extras include rehearsal footage from Waltz's 2006 piece Dialoge 06—Radiale Systeme. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)