What happens when two artists meet as choreographers for the first time? This dance evening has the answer. What began as a risky blind date soon turned into a stroke of luck: in 2024, Akram Khan brought Joy Alpuerto Ritter and Hannes Langolf together and encouraged them to collaborate for ten days. The experiment worked: in this short time, «The Fall» was created, a piece that immediately danced its way into our hearts.

Two strangers meet in an unknown place. There are no rules, laws or concepts here. Anything goes! Together, they have the chance to build a perfect future: chaos meets order. The piece plays with this dichotomy, revealing how much fragility – but also potential – lies in human fallibility.

We want to maintain this experimental character for Steps 2026: it worked, so let's do it again. For the festival, Joy Alpuerto Ritter and Hannes Langolf are adapting the existing outdoor play for the stage, inviting Swiss artist Sarafina Beck to co-create the indoor version: «The Fall» becomes The Fall/Risings.

Simply put: The piece is an exciting experiment. Two artists are creating together for the first time. There are no rules or laws on stage. Chaos meets order. Together, they can imagine the future. The piece is being further developed for Steps. A third dancer from Switzerland joins them.

Joy Alpuerto Ritter is a Berlin-based dancer and choreographer whose work is characterised by the masterful combination of diverse styles such as contemporary dance, hip hop, Filipino folk dance and voguing. Impressively versatile, she works with numerous international institutions and artists of various genres. She was already a guest at Steps in 2022 with her internationally successful solo «Babae». «The Fall / Risings» is her first collaboration with Hannes Langolf and Sarafina Beck. Picture © Merav Maroody