About dance that overcomes borders

Created: 12/21/2022, 12:56 p.m

Fled from Odessa: Carola von Herder, who was born in Gautingen, last worked at the Odessa Opera.

After the beginning of the war she fled to Vienna, where she started a dance project.

© andrea jaksch

The dancer Carola von Herder lived in Stockdorf for a long time.

Most recently she worked in Odessa, Ukraine.

After the outbreak of the war, she fled from there at the urgent request of her children – under dramatic circumstances.

Gauting/Odessa

– Carola von Herder worked at the Odessa Opera for eight years, most recently at a modern dance theater.

"And I really wanted to stay there," she says.

But then February 24 came - and with it Russia's attack on the neighboring country.

As a result, her son Oliver, a kung fu master in Japan, and her daughter Pearl, who works for the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Help Yourself” in Jordan, begged the former Stockdorfer to leave the country immediately.

"My daughter said, 'Mom, you have to get out of here.'"

Carola von Herder did the same, together with a friend.

Because she injured her leg, things didn't go as quickly as hoped.

Eventually she ended up in the Austrian capital and founded the project “Vienna dances with Ukraine”.

In doing so, she remains true to her approach that dance can transcend borders.

"International peace work begins with cultural curiosity and openness to the unknown," says the program on their website.

"Right now we live in exciting times, in which it is about overcoming foreignness with the means of imagination."

Carola von Herder was recently back in her old homeland.

On the one hand, her path led her to Gauting to liquidate her parents' house.

On the other hand, the Gautingen pastor Eckart Bruchner had invited to the audience discussion "The legacy of Pina Bausch" in the Gräfelfingen cinema.

Pina Bausch with her legendary dance theater "Dancing Pina" is the artistic role model of the internationally active choreographer.

Carola von Herder became known in Gauting in the 1980s when she lived with her daughter in Stockdorf and created the "Walpurigsnächte" with dancing around the fire as part of the parent-child program.

In an interview with our newspaper, Carola von Herder is just bubbling over with stories: she went to school in Gauting, but did her Abitur in France.

They couldn't really decide between the Ballet Academy in Munich, where they had dance training every day, and studying philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

"The die was then cast for Dance Theater London with contemporary dance," the artist recalls.

The projects got bigger and bigger, they ran through the “Tanz ohne Grenz” association.

She had a major appearance at the Odessa Opera in 1999 with the play Walpurgnisnacht, sponsored by the Goethe Institute.

She proudly says: "There were eight minutes of standing ovations." At the same time, the dancer studied Slavic studies and Russian.

"Because international understanding, the connection of cultures, democracy and peace are close to my heart." According to Carola von Herder, Ukrainian refugees are now living in her apartment in Odessa.

"I will only return there when peace reigns again." When that will be is currently in the stars.

Christine Cless-Wesle