Boris Charmatz appointed Director of Tanztheater Wuppertal from September 2022

A Franco-German cooperation project

[terrain] is the project of a green, urban, choreographic institution, a [terrain] of art without roof or walls.
The Tanztheater Wuppertal must find its own new “terrain,” both symbolic and concrete, anchored in the territory, porous to the elements.
And I would like to formulate a wish here: to shape the first dance company firmly tied to the Franco-German project ; to embody the official partnership between the North Rhine-Westphalia and the Hauts-de-France, the region where I work today...
This is vital: Europe is not enough of a cultural Europe, even while the European community first started in our very territories with a coal and steel community after the war. There is a geological vein of coal that runs through Lens, Valenciennes.... and crosses the Ruhr. We share a common geological, social, aesthetic, and economic landscape. And, in Picardy, there are First World War trenches...
I want to strengthen this Franco-German connection, to develop partnerships and a decentralized European cooperation. In a new spirit, why not imagine that Pina Bausch’s work and our future work with Tanztheater Wuppertal are also part of France?

Boris Charmatz,
October 21, 2021