Throughout his career TeeKay has been staging fascinating drama, dance and musical theatre productions. His visions of opera and operetta are just as impressive and innovative as his pure dance pieces.
In 2019 he received a very special honor: 4 of the 30 pieces he created during his time as ballet director in Lucerne were entered in the official online catalogue of the national Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts (SAPA). All pieces can be streamed in total. Click on the links and scroll down on the page of the SAPA until the streaming monitor appears:
“Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel” (The Wedding on the Eiffel tower)
“Peer!” (based on Peer Gynt by Hendrik Ibsen)
“Rossini Spitzen” (created for the Ballet Junior in Geneva)
You can also catch a glimpse of many of his pieces on youtube. Either use the search on youtube or go the video-link-page of this website.
Humor as a trademark
Comedy always seems light but actually humour and good jokes require a much better sense of timing than a tragedy. Therefore, many of Kreissig’s pieces are characterized by a humorous access to the subject matter: from the gentle profound smile in his Satie productions to the loud laughter of his Rossini-farces – anything is possible!
A true perfectionist TeeKay pays attention to every detail – thus creating sophisticated moving images with multiple layers of meaning.
Storytelling in Dance
Effective narrative choreographies that simultaneously drive the plot are a factor in successful musical productions. For many years Kreissig worked in the position of the “movement designer” with different directors, especially to bring opera or drama ensembles successfully to dance.
Often he also took over the direction of production in person, as well as in “West Side Story” (2007), “The Rocky Horror Show” (1998) or “Polenblut” (2004).
Parallel in his time as ballet director and chief choreographer of the Lucerne Ballet revisions of numerous classical ballet templates. including “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Firebird” and “Coppélia” after E.T.A. Hoffmann. With only 13 dancers, he receives impressive adaptations of Hendrik Ibsen’s “Peer!” And completely unique creations that anticipate the fractal narrative style of today’s media world.
“According to the announcement”, the world of associations of the number ten varies in a subtle way, in “Digits” high-acrobatic fast moving arithmetic operations take place and “Crazy Clips” and “Game Over Petrushka” shift the boundaries between reality and media consumption.
Specialist for modern music
His sovereign handling of complex musical structures repeatedly led to an exploration of the works of contemporary composers: in 1993, Kreissig created two works for the International Music Festival Lucerne for music by composer in residence Alfred Schnittke.
In 2007 he premiered the inherited ballet of Ahmad Adnan Saygun’s “Bir Kumru Masali” in Izmir, Turkey.
Cool theater for young and very young people
Children and teenagers are the most honest audience in the world. If they are not banned by a story, there is immediate trouble. Kreissig has repeatedly brought exciting productions for young people on the stage. Many well-known names have gained their first stage experience with TeeKay.
Some of these projects were also commissioned or sponsored by foundations: for example, the 90-minute turn-show “Kim’s Great Journey” was commissioned by the Kinderturnstiftung Baden Württemberg in 2009, inspiring children for their first experiences with gymnastics, dance and sports.
The contemporary, theatrical transmission of stories to broad audiences shapes the focus of the choreographic work of Thorsten Kreissig. Regardless of the dancing quality and age of the dancers, he succeeds in discovering new talents and making existing talents blossom.
Click here to find the complete list of his work (in German)
For descriptions in English of selected pieces please click here.
This website is continuously improved. The last time this specific subpage has been updated was April 20th 2020. In case you are able to spot any typos or a blocked link, please do not hesitate and let us know by sending an email to regie(at)kreissig(dot)net including a link of the specific subsite. I appreciate your feedback and hope you will have a wonderful day :- )