About the work
"The Times Are Racing" is a four-part ballet evening by Hamburg Ballett, presented in the 2025/26 season (with performances in spring 2026, among others). The evening spans some fifty years of dance history and juxtaposes four very different choreographies: "Adagio" by Pina Bausch, "Variations for Two Couples" by Hans van Manen, "The Thing with Feathers" by Demis Volpi and "The Times Are Racing" by Justin Peck, after which the evening is named. Under the direction of Demis Volpi, Hamburg Ballett thus presents itself as a company connecting the heritage of the 20th century with the dance of the present.
Plot
The evening gathers four self-contained works. Pina Bausch's "Adagio" (to Gustav Mahler's Adagio from the 10th Symphony) is given in a reconstruction by the Pina Bausch Foundation together with Hamburg Ballett – an early, lyrical work by the later pioneer of Tanztheater. Hans van Manen's "Variations for Two Couples" (2012, design by Keso Dekker) is elegantly erotic, simple yet highly virtuosic. Demis Volpi's "The Thing with Feathers", to Richard Strauss's "Metamorphosen", weaves sorrow, joy and longing into a touching play on the transience of dance. The evening closes with Justin Peck's "The Times Are Racing": a rapid, tap-infused piece (to music by Dan Deacon) about Peck's American homeland – its vastness and tempo, its hopeful ideals, but also its dark political reality.
Cultural significance
By setting four signatures from five decades side by side – from Pina Bausch through Hans van Manen to Demis Volpi and Justin Peck – the evening makes the continuity and transformation of dance tangible within a single programme. For Hamburg Ballett, shaped for decades by John Neumeier, such a mixed bill signals the programmatic opening under Demis Volpi (artistic director since the 2024/25 season) toward a broad international repertoire. The juxtaposition invites audiences to compare choreographic lines of development across the 20th and 21st centuries directly.