Simple Things

A tribute? A celebration? It’s more than that. Simple Things is first and foremost an act of sharing and a dialogue through gesture with a loved one. Emmanuel Eggermont, Ornella Balestra, Luca Giacomo Schulte and Takashi Ueno all danced for choreographer Raimund Hoghe, the unforgettable dramaturge of Pina Bausch's works. Together, they have ques­tioned their own physical memory to find a movement, an inspiration, a memory of the man who forever changed the way we look at the beauty of the body by exposing his own “non-traditional” physique. The challenge here is not to reprise extracts from his reper­toire, but rather to connect it with the pre­sent, according to the method professed by Hoghe himself. Performed by three of its cre­ators, this sensitive offering is chore­ographed by Emmanuel Eggermont and Luca Giacomo Schulte. Far from cultivating melan­choly, it reactivates the creative process of a work whose themes – love, life, death – remain essential.

Luca Giacomo Schulte

After studying Romance languages and art history at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Luca Giacomo Schulte studied free art at the Academy of Arts in Munster, graduating in 1994 with a degree from the Academy. Already in 1992, during his art studies, he began to work as a stage designer and artistic collaborator of Raimund Hoghe. Since 1992, Luca Giacomo Schulte has been involved in all productions. In 2009, Luca Giacomo Schulte showed his own piece Rosenzeit at the tanzhaus nrw in Dusseldorf. In 2011, his piece Joseph with the dancer Joseph P. Cooksey premiered at the festival Queer Zagreb. In 2012, it was shown in Dusseldorf in Raimund Hoghe’s festival “20 Years – 20 Days” at the Tanzhaus nrw. By invitation of Mohamed Toukabri, he codirected and performed For the Good Times at Festival d’Avignon / SACD at the Jardin de la Vierge at the Lycée St-Joseph in Avignon 2023. Luca Giacomo Schulte is an essential part of the artistic archive of Compagnie Raimund Hoghe and dances in An Evening with Raimund and the new productions Simple Things and Hidden Things.

Ornella Balestra

Ornella Balestra studied at the Royal Academy of Dance in London, the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan under the direction of Anna Maria Prina, at the Centre international de danse Rosella Higthtower in Cannes and at the Marika Besobrasova Dance Center in Monte Carlo. Selected by Maurice Béjart, she attended a three-year course at the International Mudra Center and danced as a soloist in his Le Ballet du XXe siècle. She returned to Italy and danced as a soloist with the most important Italian choreographers. She works as an artistic and dramaturgical consultant, leads workshops and is a dancer at the Venice Biennale and the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn. In 2024 she taught the European project Tra Fertili Terreni per l’Italia at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Her first collaborative work with Raimund Hoghe was in 2003 with Tanzgeschichten, Ornella Balestra is an essential part of the artistic archive of Compagnie Raimund Hoghe and dances in An Evening with Raimund and the new productions Simple Things and Hidden Things. 

Takashi Ueno

Born in Japan in 1981, Takashi Ueno began modern dance with Misako Nanbu at the age of 15. While studying contemporary dance, Ueno discovered classical dance with Wayne Byers and African dance with Cora Dupuis. He has been working with Paco Decina since 2006. Ueno met Raimund Hoghe at a workshop in Yokohama in 2002, and met again in Paris in 2010. He has taken part in the creation of eight pieces, from Si je meurs, laissez le balcon ouvert (2010) to Hoghe’s last piece, Postcards from Vietnam (2019), dancing leading roles. He currently lives in Japan and has appeared in plays by Kimiho Hulbert and in the opera Carmen directed by Irina Brook.