No. 12: 5-7 July 2002

The twelfth festival we made full with an underground program: The Ruhr region (North Rhine-Westphalia) from where many miners come from, stood as the Regional focus and Poland was Country in Focus. But the most dramatic change was once again a building project in the city: This time it hit the Castle Terrace, which led to a counter stage in a corner of the courtyard of the Heidecksburg - an emergency solution, which we had only to endure fortunately for one year. Since 2001, there has been in the festival a special team responsible for interactive dance. Matthias Weyrich who is not only one of the best dancers of Leipzig has been active for years with Tanzhausfest. He introduced himself with two conceptual changes, a stricter separation between the afternoon workshops for the dance evenings and the dance in focus. First dance of the year was the Mazurka. There were outstanding performances. The spectacular Shibusashirazu Orchestra from Japan and the loose forward blues of Willy de Ville, the fabulous Kamancheh improvisations by Kayhan Kalhor and the jazzy Cracow Klezmer Band, the oblique songs of MA Numminen and the catchy songs of Show of Hands. There was a surprising climax in the Magic concert for an instrument that does not exist as a genre: The knee violin is a collective term for the fiddles that are held on or between your knees. Viewed with suspicion, the concert turned out to be (until now) the best Magic-project of all time.

 

Please do not throw kids in our market fountain! (Tip on the Internet forum from a festival rookie).

Depending on the inclination Rudolstadt has Dance Orgy, Costume Spectacle, Ethnology Seminar, World Pop, the ethnic music of Bayreuth and the Love Parade of indigenous music. (Christoph Dieckmann, Die Zeit, 18.7.2002)