Human Fracture
How fragile, susceptible and controllable is our personality, our individuality within our society? We have feelings, desires, ideas about the future that are different with every individual. And in communicating with other people we come across conflicting needs that lead to pressure, but which can also reveal similarities. Through the prevailing means of communication networking a system has been developed that has created its own laws. In what ways and to what extent do we allow ourselves to be influenced and/or on the other hand to defend ourselves against this system? How does our social behavior change? “Human Fracture” attempts, by means of various constellations of interpretation, to subtly sharpen the viewer’s perception, to open up new perspectives.
Westend Dance Theatre / Ballet Promotion Centre Nuremberg – Choreographer & Director: Francisco Sanchez
Nacht der Ängste / Night of Fear
The main attraction in an enjoyable double-opera evening is a bed: In Nino Rota’s “Night of Fear”, it is a hotel bed in which a neurasthenic person attempts desperately to get some rest, at which time a local fair is taking place. Thinking ahead, the neurasthenic in need of peace and quiet has rented also the adjacent rooms surrounding his hotel room. Unfortunately the enterprising concierge has secretly rented out all of these rooms and the neurasthenic has to endure a “Night of Fear”. The second part of the opera evening is Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi”.
Magdeburg Theatre – Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Krupp – eine deutsche Familie / Krupp – a German family
In the second part of the successful ZDF trilogy (televison film) about the famous Krupp family, Alfred Krupp attends a revue performance with Anneliese Bahr. The choreography and costumes were executed by my brother, Javier Sanchez, and myself.MOOVIE – the art of entertainment (for ZDF) – directed by Carlo Rola
Bajazzo – Goyescas
The Heidelberg Theater, along with Leoncavallo’s “Bajazzo” presents a powerful Spanish piece from the same period, which has remained remarkably completely unknown in Germany, Goyescas.
The composer, Enrique Granados, was inspired by Goya’s beautiful paintings in the Prado Museum which depict the youth of Madrid. Glances flicker between the girls and boys and soon a fierce episode of jealousy occurs, ending in a death.
Theatre and Philharmonic Orchestra of Heidelberg Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Der Kampf des Jahrhunderts / The fight of the Century
The Fight of the Century tells the story of two boxers who are suddenly thrown into the spotlight of the world – Max Schmeling and Joe Louis. Under the title “One always meets twice” the Berliner Morgenpost wrote on October 6, 2008, “The focus, of course, is on the two protagonists, who are impressively convincing in their pugilism”… The Musicalzentrale.de believes that “Even if they are rehearsed punches (boxing choreography: Francisco Sanchez Martinez) you can see that the two performers underwent a tough training period”.
The fight of the century. Musical by James E. Lyons and Paul Graham Brown grandstand – Director: James E. Lyons – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Glückliche Reise / Happy journey
Headlines from the Coburg “Neue Presse” of April 28, 2008: “Dreams of love and the wide, wide world”…
Motivated by the Wanderlust of the 50’s the actors move before striking, gaudy caricatures of travel advertisements or perform, using Hawaiian hula skirts, monkey masks and banana-shaped microphones, in front of a pop-like palm grove, a parody of a native dance. In revue-like episodes, the director has the two couples meet, quarrel, make up, all done in a framework of musical numbers choreographed by Francisco Sanchez Martinez. Künneke, through a series of rumbas, fox trots, Pasodobles, marches, blues and tangos, provides the particularly fertile soil into which the choreographer Francisco Sanchez Martinez delves to the fullest, demanding the utmost from his soloists as well as from the chorus.
Happy journey, operetta by Eduard Künneke Coburg State Theatre – Director: Natasha Ursuliak – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Bühnenball Zweitausendlacht / Theater ball, 2000-laughs
“Whoever comes once will gladly come again, the Meiningen Theater Ball is the biggest and most beloved social event in South Thuringia”, so wrote the South Thuringian News on January 21, 2008. And of course the program for such a spirited evening needs some choreography. So accordingly the excerpts from the second act of “Die Fledermaus” were not only audibly but also visibly worthy of the evening. I also enjoyed very much the production of the Boney M medley performed by the chorus later on in the evening.
Ball Stage Two Thousand Laughs – Südthüringisches Staatstheater Meiningen Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Dreieck – Schwellen / (Triangle – Thresholds) with guest choreographer
A project directed by Maria Terpugova which crosses over national and medial boundaries. A performance by the association Quartierkultur (neighborhood culture) in Zurich, 6th parish. As guest choreographer I was commissioned to choreograph two pieces. The first, a contemporary piece, deals with the exuberance, decadence and the sexual liberation of the 1920’s, just as Shostakovich describes them in his “Jazz Suite”. The second piece, “The Crow”, to Franz Schubert’s “Winterreise” (Winter journey), deals with the emotional confrontation with death and new beginnings. This choreography I created in the neoclassical style for the Russian dancer and choreographer Maria Terpugova.
Theater Rigiblick, Zurich – Choreographer & Director: Francisco Sanchez
Playing Away
First performed in 1994, Benedict Mason’s opus is grand opera, about football, opera, pop music and Germany, Just the right thing in this year between the European and the World Championships.
Playing Away – opera by Benedict Mason – Bregenz Festival – co-produced by Festspielhaus St. Pölten – Director: David Pountney – Choreographer: Beate Vollack – Choreographer-Assistant: Francisco Sanchez
Le Nozze di Figaro
Under the heading “Heaven over Heidelberg” “Die Rheinpfalz”, on April 7, 2007 wrote: “Francisco Sanchez’ superb choreographic elements transformed the ensemble scenes into theater of the absurd”.
The Marriage of Figaro – Mozart – Theatre and Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Heidelberg – Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Kiss me, Kate
The Nordkurier writes on October 23, 2006: This production focuses on tempo, lively arrangements, pleasurable savoring the Shakespearean word and multitalented players who know how to please their public. It is not surprising that slapstick and costuming (?) often gain the upper hand in this piece. Happily the mimes, the opera singers, the chorus and the three dance couples (choreography: Francisco Sanchez Martinez) are amalgamated convincingly into an operating ensemble.
The Newspaper Anzeigen Kurier wrote on October 25, 2006: “Exciting and visually very effective are the ensemble scenes in which the opera chorus, supported by six dancers, enthuse the audience with their singing and dancing”.
Kiss Me Kate – Cole Porter – Landestheater Neustrelitz – Director: Wolfgang Dosch - Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Der Vetter aus Dingsda / The cousin from Nowhere
www.eisenachonline.de wrote on June 24, 206 under the headline: “a lively operetta on the Fishbach Mountain Stage”. With a lot of skill in a lighter theatrical genre Rainer Eichhorn as musical director, guest director Aron Stiehl and choreographer Francisco Sanchez, as well as the ensemble of soloists, turned out a sparkling production full of vitality.
The Cousin from Nowhere – operetta by Eduard Künnecke – Eisenach State Theatre (Bergbühne Fischbach) – Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Fürst Pückler – Ich bin ein Kind der Fantasie / Duke Pückler – I am a child full of fantasy.
Boris Michael Gruhl wrote in the online classical music magazine: “Through movement and humor the evening is always light and well worth seeing. The like able as well as lively and technically optimally disposed troupe dances and acts with bravura and charm, making it clear that gaiety is essentially connected with elegance and precision. In the first part particularly the ballet and chorus ensemble scenes provide entertainment and humor, as expected from the composer, the purpose of whose composition is firework-like colorfulness which fascinates everyone.
Neapolitan – I am a child of the imagination – Opera Enjott Schneider – Theater Görlitz Director: Aron Stiehl – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Salome in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Salome’s dance – titillating, beguiling and yet gruesome, presented in front of the famous Babylonian Ischtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum. Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils was performed on the occasion of a gala event.
Pergamon Museum, Berlin – Music: Richard Strauss – Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Undine
www.opernnetz.de wrote about the production: “Slapstick numbers and running gags which remind us of Disney films – Kühleborn as a hat fetishist with adventurous, constantly changing headdresses- certainly do no justice to the mythical profundity of Hofmann’s model, but wins the laughter of the greatly amused audience.”
One reads in the Hamburger Abendblatt on March 4,2005 under the heading “Romantic charm with fun factor”: “Although the singers and musicians had to fight against the plush-armchair-acoustics, the ensemble surprised the audience with staged gags and group dances, as if the choreographer Francisco Sanchez Martinez had watched “Der Schuh des Manitou” (Manitou’s shoe) too often.
Undine – E.T.A. Hoffmann – Hamburg Chamber Opera (Alley Theatre) – Director: Aron Stiehl Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Die kleine Undine / The little Undine
Lortzing’s “The Little Undine” which was presented in the Hamburg Children’s Theater just two weeks before E.T.A. Hofmann’s opera “Undine” got less attention than her “big sister”, which I simultaneously choreographed.
Nevertheless the “Welt Online” wrote on August 24, 2004: “Albert Lortzing’s romantic magical opera “Undine” is also a rarely staged delicacy”, and called the première on February 19, 2005: “Enchanting mermaid swims on the waves of success”.
If a theater can be considered the measure-setting example in Hamburg as a model region for children’s culture, then it is the Children’s Theater, continuously working for over 30 years at the highest level.
The little Undine – opera by Albert Lortzing – Theatre for Children, Hamburg – Director: Andreas Franz Choreographer: Francisco Sanchez
Fragilité
Volkmar Draeger in Ballet International wrote in April 2004: “The choreographic studies program which is a division of the University for Dramatic Art has again a promising graduating class. Francisco Sanchez Martinez has offered a dance piece fitting to the concurrently occurring Christopher Street Day with the classically based duet “Fragilité” about a relationship between two women, their “outing”, their conquering isolation, tightly woven, tenderly perceived, convincingly danced”.
Fragilité – a piece by Francisco Sanchez – bat-studio-theater, London (31 March 2004) – Putbus Theatre (10 October 2004)
Traumjob / Dream Job
Peter Ackermann wrote in theater pur- the Northrhine Westfalia magazine – about my contribution to the choreographers’ evening “Solo and Duet”. With Aktentraum (Ledgers Dream) Francisco Sanchez Martinez shows how you can choreograph a simple story for a theater. He succeeds in creating fabulously a modern dance and in dreams an almost classical portrait.
Dream Job was first presented in the bat-studio-theater under the title “Aktentraum” (Ledgers Dream)
Dream Job – Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden / bat Studio Theatre, London – Music: Sergei Prokofiev, Berlioz – Choreographer: Francico Sanchez