(Interview from 2012)

Susann Mayer

Candlelight reflects in the children's bright and expectant eyes as they eagerly await Christmas Eve and all its surprises. A shimmer of longing transforms the period between Christmas and New Year into the fairy-tale season. In legends and stories, reality, wishes and dreams come together and the lines between them blur. That heady mix is why the days between Christmas and New Year are so special.

It's the Christmas season and the evening sun is glistening on the snow. That means it's time for Kirsten Balbig to open her big book of fairy tales and bring to life all those characters who confer on the world a little of their eternal childlike magic...

Kirsten Balbig's wide eyes captivate her audience as she tells stories on the "fairy-tale stage" at the Yenidze, where she has been a member of the ensemble since 2004. The linguist and musicologist accompanies her stories on the accordion or piano and she seeks to take her listeners "to distant fairy-tale worlds, where wizards and fairies reign and where miracles are part of everyday life".

But why did Kirsten Balbig become a storyteller – alongside her other roles?
"Singing, dancing, storytelling – they have been in my blood since I was a child. When I was little, I wanted to know what profession I would need to be able to travel the big wide world," she remembers clearly. "Wanderlust drove me away in the '90s. I traveled through many countries in Europe, and later Asia." Most of the time, she traveled alone because "that was the only way I could immerse myself in the other culture and participate in everyday life." Along the way, she performed as a street musician.

Is that where the treasure trove of songs comes from when she performs her Spanish, French, and German chansons and world music today?
"I've always been thirsty for knowledge, and wanted to combine travel with music, literature, and language." So, you could say it made sense for Balbig, originally from Dresden, to opt for a degree in linguistics, literature, and musicology at TU Dresden in 1996. Her studies even included a year abroad in Nashville. She still benefits from that year today when she runs "USA Day" at Volkshochschule Dresden, where she questions and tries to disprove widespread clichés about the country under the heading "Dream or nightmare – a cultural-historical view" ("Traum oder Alptraum – eine kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtung").

However, she describes herself first and foremost as an actor and a musician. That is why, after graduating with her Magistra Artium degree, she headed first to the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain to immerse herself in the history of flamenco and the Spanish language. Focused on her art, she took private lessons and continued her training in acting, singing, and dance. Both alone and together with other artists, Kirsten Balbig has been staging cross-genre performances that seamlessly combine acting, language, music, song and dance for a number of years now.

It is not just kindergartens and schools that invite her to perform fairy tales from all over the world. She starts as a storyteller, underlines the mysticism of the fairy tales with song and adds the element of dance to make for unique performances. There is nothing quite like it in Dresden. Small wonder that she is also often engaged for private parties such as weddings and birthdays.

And what about traveling again?
"It's more of an inward journey that I'm on at the moment," she smiles. "My wanderlust is satisfied – now I enjoy a vibrant spirituality."

Contact details:

Kirsten Balbig
Tel.: 0351 2012603
Mobile: 0176 29313414

Email: Kirsten Balbig

Web: Kirsten Balbig

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