"Nachtträume" by Marcos Morau was the ballet event of the year in Zurich in 2022. The piece by the Spanish star choreographer is both a dance-based panopticon and a profound total work of art. It depicts a disturbingly beautiful dream world in which power, powerlessness, and blind obedience collide: A 90-minute, stirring journey through the abysses and hopes of our present—a mirror of vanity, envy, greed, and social Darwinism.

Drawing on Kurt Jooss’s iconic 1932 anti-war dramolett “Der grüne Tisch,” Morau weaves historical references with quotes from masterpieces by Maurice Béjart such as “Boléro” and “Le sacre du printemps.” In this restaging by the Hessian State Ballet, the stage becomes a labyrinth of round tables, chairs, red sun-shaped balls, and intertwining bodies, where destruction and seduction, threat and sensuality lie in close proximity.