»Dance« | 7.-23. Juni

The coexistence of music and movement goes back to the earliest times of mankind - the two cannot be separated. The function of dance encompasses all areas of life: cultic celebrations and incantations, the ordering of social interaction in the experience of community, all the way to the spontaneous expression of joie de vivre.

Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci 2024 is dedicated to the various functions and facets of dance, beginning with the brief heyday of the Berlin court ballet from 1742-47. Afterwards, the view expands to a history of dance in music that has been handed down in written form, from medieval estampia to the triumphal march of various dance rhythms across Europe to the role of dance in the court festivals of the Baroque. Witness the transformation of dances into the art form of the suite, the role of dance in the reorganisation of Europe at the Congress of Vienna and in the struggle of oppressed peoples for national independence in the 19th century. Dance also plays an important role in the bloody upheavals of modern times, from the ballet music of expressionism to the »dance on the volcano« of the 1920s to the popular social dances such as swing and rock n' roll, with whose spread the years of marching combat troops of the Second World War are replaced. The present day culminates in the sharp contrast between folk-tinged dance music, which is experiencing a renaissance, the spread of commercial disco music and the electronic dance music of the clubs and basement bars with their hypnotic repetitions, such as house and techno.