Hamburg Ballet x Akris
Epilogue - John Neumeier

Albert Kriemler designed costumes for John Neumeier‘s Epilogue.
Hamburg, July 3, 2024 – Akris Creative Director Albert Kriemler has created dresses and suits for the dancers of John Neumeier‘s Epilogue. The world premiere took place on Sunday, June 30, 2024, at the Hamburg State Opera by the Hamburg Ballet.

With Epilogue, John Neumeier bids farewell to the Hamburg Ballet after 51 years as its director and chief choreographer with an intimate piece inspired by chamber music. The music of Richard Strauss, Franz Schubert, and Simon & Garfunkel inspired a ballet of subtle tones and movements, developed by Neumeier and his ensemble.

Dates of the planned performances: November 2024 - February 2025

A simple sketch of an Akris designer dress for the Hamburg State Opera, with a tulle fabric pattern next to it.

Hamburger Ballet Epilogue - Ballerina, dressed in a bright Akris dress, seems to float across the stage, supported in the arms of a ballerino.

Albert Kriemler's
Designed Costumes

The designer transferred the musical colors into costumes. When the joy of life resounds in Richard Strauss‘s song Frühling (Spring) from the vocal song cycle Die Vier letzten Lieder (Four Last Songs, 1948), Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian takes the stage in an asymmetrical red techno-mesh dress. The dancers‘ flowing, lemon and butter-yellow crêpe georgette pants reflect the exhilarating experience of light. For September, in which summer‘s abundance and the onset of darkness dominate simultaneously, Kriemler designed a shirt and silk georgette skirt in a soft stone-blue.

For The Sound of Silence (1964) by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, which deals with the loneliness of modern society, the designer chose greige men‘s suits in the style of 1940s Film Noir. The poetry of Franz Schubert‘s piano sonatas is translated into a light, structured net dress in chai for the first soloist Ida Praetorius.

Ballerino of the Hamburg State Opera, floats in the air in an expressive pose, while other dancers stand in the background. All the dresses were designed by Akris.

A simple design sketch of an Akris designer dress with fabric samples next to it.

The Inspiration

The designer was also inspired by the stage set and its reference to the works of Italian Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca. He translated della Francesca‘s sensitivity to color and his sublime pastels into i.e. tourmaline-green-blue organza dresses for the dancers. A dusky beige-grey painting by the artist (The Stigmatisation of St. Francis, ca.1460) inspired an ensemble consisting of a rust-red cotton stretch top and charcoal jeans with beige-grey, rather than white, base threads.

A sneak peek picture of Albert Kriemler, Creative Director of Swiss designer fashion house Akris, collaborating with John Neumaier who is the Chief Choreographer of Hamburg State Ballet.

Close to 20 Year's
of Joint Collaboration

Epilogue marks the last collaboration of the creative companions for the Hamburg Ballet. John Neumeier and Albert Kriemler have worked together on ballet projects for almost 20 years. Kriemler has designed costumes for Neumeier‘s choreographies such as: Beethoven Project II (2021), Turangalîla (2016), Josephs Legende/ Verklungene Feste in Hamburg (2008) and Vienna (2015), the Vienna State Opera Ballet for the New Year‘s Concert (2006), and for prima ballerina Anna Laudere as Anna Karenina in the ballet of the same name, co-produced with the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow, and the National Ballet of Canada, Toronto (2017).

John Neumeier

“In all our projects, Albert didn’t really create ‘costumes’, but rather clothes for dancers. This humanization of the theatrical wardrobe represents my desire not to see dancers on stage but first and foremost people who dance.”

Albert Kriemler

“With John, every get-together is a move forward, an evolution of things. For me it remains fascinating to design modern clothes for dancers with the utmost functionality to move. To see them in real clothes – not costumes. My passion is that “Epilogue” gets the sleek timelessness of here and now that I live in all my designs.”