CARMINA BERLINA

CARMINA BERLINA

’Decide for yourselves how strong you are!’ Royston Maldoom

January 2006. Who will finally get the upper hand? So-called ‘fate’ which Carl Orff’s choral work ‘Carmina Burana’ is about, or the individual with his personal call for happiness, love and a satisfying life? ‘Decide for yourselves whether fate should shape you, or whether you rather wish to take fate, your own personal fate, in hand deliberately!’ Royston Maldoom’s plea to his youthful dancers may stand as a motto over the whole educational project about ‘Carmina Burana’, as long as ‘fate’ is taken to be what is passed on from person to person in daily life and also in the sphere of the arts and music.

This is already the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s fourth dance-project after the legendary performance of 'Sacré du Printemps' recorded in RHYTHM IS IT! The initiative launched by the orchestra and its conductor Sir Simon Rattle, for the sake of taking classical music out of the Philharmonic Hall to folk throughout the city, has by now reached even remote circles.

Inspired by the film RHYTHM IS IT! and by the continual process of transformation begun by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a lot has begun moving since 2002. Dance has become part of the curriculum in 12 Berlin schools, and music- and dance-projects are cropping up not only throughout Germany but also in Austria and Switzerland. Some of the youngsters who took part in earlier dance projects are now studying dance, convinced that this kind of physical expression is their passion and purpose.

This documentary looks back on four years of educational work performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and relates, in connection with the rehearsals to the fourth dance-presentation ‚Carmina Burana’, the tale of four disparate participants, whose lives have been notably changed by their meeting with music and dance.