Osiel Gouneo & Friends: Black Romeo

In the organizer's words:

Experience dance star Osiel Gouneo and top-class international guests exclusively at a unique biographical dance & dance literature evening at the Theaterhaus.

Guests:
Thilo Komma-Pöllath, co-author of "Black Romeo"
Laurretta Summerscales, first soloist of the Bavarian State Ballet
Ksenia Shevtsova, first soloist Bayrisches Staatsballett
Maria Daniela Gonzalez, dancer

About the book:
He made it. Out of the slums in Cuba and to the top of the European ballet world. The Afro-Cuban Osiel Gouneo is first soloist at the Bavarian State Ballet - and one of the few black stars on the classical ballet scene. He now talks about his extraordinary career in his book "Black Romeo". Together with numerous renowned dancers from the international dance scene, he presents scenes from his work in a reading and demonstrates the graceful grace of dance in the Theaterhaus.

Usually a ballet book impresses with photos, with snapshots of extraterrestrial beauty in which the weightlessness of dance is captured. Not so "Black Romeo". The book is not a magnificent, heavy illustrated book. The book tells of the hard life, the struggle and the strength it takes to escape poverty. It is the story of Osiel Gouneo's life.

He danced from an early age: at first only rumba under the mango tree in Matanzas. As a nine-year-old, Osiel was sent to the strict boarding school in Pastorita as a kind of "ballet soldier". "My imagination was not enough to imagine that I could actually be on stage one day. I thought they wanted to humiliate me here with white tights," is how he describes his view of the grueling ballet training at the time.

But Osiel battled through the tough training routine. He motivates himself by watching stacks of ballet videos. Later, Gouneo succeeds in the entrance exam at the prestigious academy in Havana. This launched Osiel's international career as a dancer: in Oslo, Moscow, Paris and Munich.

A theme that he encounters at almost every stage of his career is the real racism that exists in the glittering world of ballet. Gouneo speaks bluntly about the N-word and the angry Moor in Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka". Gouneo was named Dancer of the Year as Spartacus at the Bavarian State Ballet, in the role of a slave. This raises the question for the dancer: do audiences and critics love him because Gouneo really is the best or because he "fits" perfectly? Just a side note: he got his surname Gouneo from the slave owner of his ancestors.

Gouneo was the first black Romeo at the traditional Parisian ballet, hence the title of the book.

And in his book he asks: How black and white is our thinking? How preformed are our viewing habits? Wouldn't it finally be time to evaluate according to quality and not skin color? In theory, we are all "woke" and tolerant, inquire about pronouns and make sexual preferences a topic of conversation over coffee. But when it comes to racism, it's often a different story.

Osiel Gouneo's autobiography is therefore not only an incredible story of advancement, but also a surprising and relevant contribution to the debate in times of heated discussions about cancel culture and cultural appropriation.

Topics that will also be the focus of the evening at the Theaterhaus. Topics that move are united with the movement of international dance and thus become a common language that works across all borders.

More about the guests:

Thilo Komma-Pölath, born in 1971, is a journalist, reporter and author based in Munich. He is the co-author of Osiel Gouneo's autobiography, BLACK ROMEO. Komma-Pöllath runs the editorial office KOMMA MEDIA and writes for some of the most renowned quality media, including the magazine of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS) and the Swiss DAS MAGAZIN. Komma-Pöllath calls himself a "critical journalist" and his thematic focus is on society, media and culture. He has written a critical biography of soccer manager Uli Hoeneß and is co-author of the SPIEGEL bestseller "Ich habe Wut und Hass besiegt", the Holocaust memoir by Auschwitz survivor Rachel Hanan. Komma-Pöllath has been awarded several journalism prizes. Born in Bavaria, he would love to learn to dance salsa, but Osiel Gouneo still hasn't shown him how.

Laurretta Summerscales, principal dancer at the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich (2017- current) and former principal dancer at the English National Ballet in London (2009-2018). Most recently, she won gold at the International Ballet Competition in Beijing in 2013.

Ksenia Shevtsova, winner of the Bolshoi Ballet's Best Ballerina Nomination Project (2018) and winner of the Soul of Dance Award (2019). In 2019 she was appointed Prima Ballerina of the Stanislavsky Theater. Since 2024 she is prima ballerina of the Bavarian State Ballet.

This content has been machine translated.

Price information:

Advance booking: Cat. 1: 60,- // Cat. 2: 50,- // Cat. 3: 45,- // Cat. 4: 30,- €