The ugly duckling

The ugly duckling tries to do everything right and does everything wrong. Labelled ugly and disruptive by the duck community, it tries to be the ultimate duck of all and gets tangled up in the snares of an identity crisis. This is how an adventure journey driven by longing and defiance begins.

The story of Hans-Christian Andersen is one of the classics among modern fairy tales. But while many productions or even in animated films, such as the most famous interpretation by Walt Disney, emphasize the sad victim role of the duckling, director/choreographer Maria Walser focuses on actively dealing with “not belonging.”

The production is a humorous dance theatre about trust in one's own strength. With a total of four performers from music, dance and acting, an imaginative journey unfolds through the confusion of personal and external perception, which is dedicated to the potential of anger and longing. At the same time, however, the piece also focuses on the question of subjective perception and role attributions. Is the duckling really ugly or is it a drawer in your own head that makes you feel ugly? Can you move beautifully in a body that is described as ugly by others. And what is a nice movement anyway?

In order to present all these important questions to the audience, the directing team was accompanied and advised during the production by the children in grade 1c from Otto Lilienthal elementary school in Wustermark as part of the ATZE co-pilot project.