SalzhausSpielzeit 26 / 27

Contemporary dance / Basel / since 2019

Bodiesin aroom.

Fourteen dancers in a salt warehouse on the Rhine. Six pieces a year, each one made in the hall it is shown in.

Season 26/27

What the company is

We do not tour a repertoire. Every piece is built where you will sit to watch it, out of the size of that hall, the temperature of that month, and the fourteen people who happen to be in the company that year. When any of those change, the piece is over.

Salzhaus took the lease on a disused salt store in 2019 and has never rehearsed anywhere else. The floor is the original one, sanded twice, and it is the loudest surface any of us have worked on.

The company is funded by the canton, by a small foundation that asked not to be named on the poster, and by ticket income that covers a third of the year.

Six pieces

Spielzeit 26 / 27. Every date is in this building unless it says otherwise.

  1. 01

    Halle

    For fourteen dancers and one floor11 – 27 Sep 2026Salzhaus, Halle A75′
  2. 02

    Zwischenraum

    A duet that never touches06 – 15 Nov 2026Salzhaus, Studio 248′
  3. 03

    Salz

    The piece the building is named after15 Jan – 07 Feb 2027Salzhaus, Halle A90′
  4. 04

    Der lange Gang

    Walked, not danced, for fifty minutes05 – 14 Mar 2027Kaserne Basel50′
  5. 05

    Tafel

    Nine performers, one table, no chairs09 – 25 Apr 2027Salzhaus, Halle A65′
  6. 06

    Nichts fällt

    Everything is caught before it lands04 – 19 Jun 2027Salzhaus, Dach80′

14

Dancers under contract

6

New pieces a year

1 200

Square metres of floor

0

Pieces made anywhere else

How a piece gets made

Eleven weeks in the hall, and the first six of them have no audience, no title and no lights.

Week one is spent walking. The company crosses the hall in every direction it can be crossed, and somebody counts. It sounds like a joke until the fourth day, when the room stops being neutral and starts having corners that mean something.

From week seven the lighting designer is in the room for every minute of rehearsal, because a piece lit afterwards is a different piece. From week nine we invite ten people in, on a Tuesday, and watch them rather than the stage.

Nothing is filmed until the last week. A camera in the room turns rehearsal into documentation and the dancers start performing to it within about twenty minutes.

Three things we do not negotiate

Written down in 2019 and unchanged since, which surprises us as much as anybody.

I

The room comes first

A piece is made in the room it will be shown in, at the hour it will be shown. Nothing is transposed later from a rehearsal studio with different light and a shorter wall.

II

Nothing is explained

There is no programme note telling you what a section is about. If the movement needs a paragraph to land, the movement is not finished and we go back into the room.

III

Everyone is credited

Fourteen dancers, one lighting designer, two technicians and whoever built the object on stage. The poster carries all of them at the same size.

A hall this size gives you two honest options. Fill it, or admit how small a person is in it.

Ada Vermeulen, artistic direction

The fourteen

Contracted for the whole season, paid the same, listed alphabetically by nothing in particular.

  • Ada Vermeulen
  • Ruben Sasse
  • Ilse Wyss
  • Noa Brenner
  • Timo Achermann
  • Céline Roth
  • Kaya Öz
  • Ferdinand Lamm
  • Miriam Städeli
  • Jonas Brügger
  • Alina Kunz
  • Ravi Menon
  • Hedda Falk
  • Luca Bernasconi

Autumn dates

September and November. Winter goes on sale in October.

  1. Fr 11.09HalleHalle A20:00Premiere
  2. Sa 12.09HalleHalle A20:00
  3. Su 13.09HalleHalle A17:00Talk after
  4. We 16.09HalleHalle A20:00
  5. Fr 18.09HalleHalle A20:00Sold out
  6. Sa 19.09HalleHalle A20:00
  7. Su 20.09Open studioStudio 214:00Free
  8. We 23.09HalleHalle A20:00
  9. Fr 25.09HalleHalle A20:00
  10. Sa 26.09HalleHalle A20:00
  11. Su 27.09HalleHalle A17:00Last
  12. Fr 06.11ZwischenraumStudio 220:30Premiere
  13. Sa 07.11ZwischenraumStudio 220:30
  14. Su 08.11ZwischenraumStudio 218:00
  15. Th 12.11ZwischenraumStudio 220:30
  16. Fr 13.11ZwischenraumStudio 220:30Talk after
  17. Sa 14.11ZwischenraumStudio 220:30
  18. Su 15.11ZwischenraumStudio 218:00Last

Everything, since 2019

Retired pieces stay retired. None of these can be booked.

  1. 2025BodenVermeulen / Sasse70′31 performances
  2. 2025KalkWyss45′18 performances
  3. 2024Zwei TürenVermeulen95′44 performances
  4. 2024RandÖz / Brenner40′22 performances
  5. 2023AufrissSasse65′29 performances
  6. 2023Weiss auf WeissVermeulen55′26 performances
  7. 2022FugeAchermann80′35 performances
  8. 2022KanteWyss / Roth38′14 performances
  9. 2021HalbschattenVermeulen72′19 performances
  10. 2021UmzugEnsemble60′11 performances
  11. 2020Ohne PublikumEnsemble46′Filmed only
  12. 2019Erstes StückVermeulen52′9 performances

Coming to the Salzhaus

Address
Salzhaus, Uferstrasse 90, 4057 Basel
Doors
One hour before, and the bar stays open after
Tickets
CHF 15 – 42, under 26 pays CHF 12 at any performance
Access
Step-free to Halle A and Studio 2; the roof is by lift only
Late
You will be seated. We would rather you came in late than not at all
Photography
Yes, without flash, and not during Zwischenraum

Box office

+41 61 000 90 90

Uferstrasse 90, 4057 Basel. The office answers between 10 and 16, and nobody answers during a technical rehearsal, which is most of the afternoon before a première.

Monday
Shut
Tuesday
10 – 16
Wednesday
10 – 16
Thursday
10 – 16
Friday
10 – 16
Performance days
Until curtain
Sunday
Shut

Returns go back on sale an hour before curtain, at the hall, for cash, to whoever is standing there.