Märchen zur Weihnachtszeit — Theater Hagen
Type: Recurring Practice · Dance Education · Young Audiences · Choreography · Theatre
Period: approximately ten years — documented through individual production records
Institution: Theater Hagen, Hagen, Germany
Role: Choreographer · Dance Educator
Audience: Children · Families · School groups · Young audiences
Status: Historical record · recurring institutional practice documented through individual productions and contemporary press
Record / Description
For approximately a decade, Ricardo Viviani was repeatedly engaged as choreographer for the Märchen zur Weihnachtszeit at Theater Hagen, contributing dance and choreography to a continuing series of productions for children, families and school audiences.
This recurring body of work is best understood as a distinct strand of Viviani’s practice rather than as a collection of unrelated individual productions. The productions combined theatre, music and dance and were presented as major seasonal events for young audiences at Theater Hagen.
The individual productions are documented separately in the archive. This record preserves the larger institutional and artistic relationship: the repeated creation of choreography for young audiences within the Christmas-period programme of Theater Hagen.
The Recurring Practice
The Märchen zur Weihnachtszeit occupied a particular position in the cultural life of Theater Hagen. Contemporary reporting describes the Christmas fairy tale as a long-established pre-Christmas tradition for schools in the region and records audiences drawn from several generations.
A contemporary report from November 2012, on Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse, stated that approximately 30,000 people of all generations were expected to see the production before Christmas, including numerous school classes. The report also describes the Christmas fairy tale as part of the pre-Christmas “curriculum” for many regional schools. It specifically discusses Ricardo Viviani’s choreography and its effect on the predominantly young audience.
The figure of 30,000 is retained here as a contemporary reported expected attendance figure for the 2012 production, not as a calculated cumulative audience figure for the entire period.
Dance and Choreography
Viviani’s role within the series was specifically choreographic. Contemporary Theater Hagen publications and press material repeatedly identify him as choreographer, including documentation for Hänsel und Gretel, Kalif Storch and König Drosselbart.
The 2012 contemporary review of Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse gives additional evidence of the artistic character of this work. It describes Viviani’s choreography as contributing to the atmosphere of the production and specifically connects his choreographic approach with the imagination of a child.
This recurring engagement therefore provides substantial evidence for the development of dance as an integral component of Viviani’s work for young audiences, within large-scale theatrical productions rather than only within dedicated educational workshops.
Young Audiences / Dance Education
The Theater Hagen Märchen work is an important part of the broader Dance Educator strand in Ricardo Viviani’s archive. The audience was not incidental: the productions were conceived and programmed specifically for children, families and school groups.
The Theater Hagen programme for Hänsel und Gretel explicitly describes the responsibility of presenting fairy tales to thousands of children entering the theatre space for the first time and experiencing the performance with all their senses. The production credits Ricardo Viviani with choreography.
The recurring Märchen practice therefore represents a different but complementary form of dance education from workshop-based projects such as Carl & children in Kleve or Carnaval da Dorotéia in Frankfurt: here, children encountered dance through professional theatre productions designed specifically for young audiences.
Production History
The individual production records currently documented in the archive include the Theater Hagen Christmas-period fairy-tale productions for which Ricardo Viviani’s choreographic involvement is recorded. These records should remain the principal sources for individual production facts, dates, collaborators, premieres and production details.
The broader production history includes, among others, Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse, Der Froschkönig, Hänsel und Gretel, Kalif Storch and König Drosselbart, alongside other productions documented in the existing Theater Hagen production records.
Public Reception / Contemporary Documentation
The surviving press material provides unusually valuable evidence of the scale and cultural position of the Märchen series.
In November 2012, TV58.de reported on Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse and described an expected audience of approximately 30,000 people of all generations, including numerous school classes. The article emphasizes the long-established relationship between the Christmas fairy tale and regional schools and discusses Viviani’s choreography as an important part of the production.
In November 2013, Lokalkompass Hagen reported on the Märchenwerkstatt for Der Froschkönig, identifying Ricardo Viviani as choreographer and describing the public workshop as an opportunity to see the production process and meet members of the creative team.
Contemporary material for Hänsel und Gretel, Kalif Storch and König Drosselbart further documents Viviani’s continuing choreographic role in the series.
Institutional Context
The importance of the Märchen series lies not only in the individual productions but also in its institutional continuity at Theater Hagen. The recurring format connected professional theatre-making with a large and returning young audience, including organised school attendance and family performances.
The available documentation indicates that the theatre treated these productions as an important part of its relationship with younger audiences, while the recurring engagement of Viviani established continuity in the choreographic language of the series.
Contribution / Significance
The Theater Hagen Märchen series represents a substantial body of work in Ricardo Viviani’s development as a choreographer working with young audiences.
It demonstrates that his work with children and families extended beyond isolated educational projects into sustained professional theatre practice, where choreography formed part of large-scale productions experienced by school groups, families and multigenerational audiences.
The contemporary evidence of large attendance, repeated school participation and the theatre’s stated responsibility toward first-time young theatre visitors gives this strand particular relevance to the archive’s developing Dance Educator / Young Audiences history.
Assessment / Relevance
This recurring Theater Hagen practice is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for a long-term young-audience dimension in Viviani’s career.
It should therefore be read alongside, rather than merged with, his school-based dance education projects, cultural mediation projects and later young-audience activities. Together these records establish a broader professional strand in which dance functions as artistic creation, communication and access to culture for younger generations.
Archival Material
Surviving and identified documentation includes: individual Theater Hagen production records; Theater Hagen season programmes and theatre newspapers; contemporary press coverage; Märchenwerkstatt documentation; production photographs and other surviving visual material; and the broader Theater Hagen production list.
The 30,000 figure is retained specifically as the contemporary reported expected audience for the 2012 production Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse. It should not currently be presented as a cumulative attendance figure for the entire approximately ten-year period.
Keywords
Theater Hagen · Märchen zur Weihnachtszeit · Christmas fairy tale · young audiences · children · families · school groups · dance education · Dance Educator · choreography · children’s theatre · family theatre · cultural education · Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse · Der Froschkönig · Hänsel und Gretel · Kalif Storch · König Drosselbart · Ricardo Viviani
External Links
TV58.de — Märchenhaftes Musical zur Weihnachtszeit am theaterhagen, 2012
Lokalkompass — Märchenwerkstatt im Theater Hagen: Der Froschkönig, 2013
Lokalkompass — Hänsel und Gretel, 2015
Theater Hagen — Spielzeitheft 2015/16: Hänsel und Gretel
Theater Hagen — Spielzeitheft 2016/17: Kalif Storch
Theater Hagen — Theaterzeitung: König Drosselbart, 2017
Internal Links
Productions — complete production list
Existing Theater Hagen production records
Archival Note
This record documents the recurring institutional and artistic practice of Ricardo Viviani’s work as choreographer for the Märchen zur Weihnachtszeit at Theater Hagen. Individual productions remain the primary records for production-specific facts and should not be duplicated here. Contemporary press and institutional publications are used to document the scale, continuity and young-audience context of the series. Attendance figures are retained according to their original documentary meaning and are not converted into cumulative estimates without further evidence.