In 2004, Frankfurt’s cultural policy scored a classic own goal when it excommunicated the ballet department from the opera. The choreographer William Forsythe, already a world-class artist at the time, saved himself and his ensemble by founding his own company in the Bockenheimer Depot and giving it a second base at the Festspielhaus Hellerau near Dresden. Frankfurt’s reputation as a dance city was of course tarnished, and ten years later Forsythe took the consequences: he put the company in younger hands, said goodbye to his American homeland and at some point decided not to hand over his extensive archive to the Main metropolis under any circumstances.
“Friends of Forsythe” by William Forsythe and “A la Carte” by Ioannis Mandafounis: Dance à la carte – Culture
