Fascinating Movement

His performance is about to begin. Friedemann Vogel is standing at the edge of the stage, in the dark. He appears calm, focused. No sign of nervousness. There comes his cue. Vogel straightens up and walks into the bright spotlight. What follows is pure perfection. The movements: powerful and elegant at the same time, explosive and fluid in equal measure. And always gracefully and precisely executed.

Friedemann Vogel is a multi-award winning ballet dancer. Born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, he trained at the world-famous John Cranko School before going to the prestigious Princess Grace Academy in Monte Carlo. Today he can be seen on stages in Moscow, Milan, Shanghai or Vienna. An international star. In 2015, he was awarded the honorary title “Kammertänzer” in Germany: the highest honour that can be bestowed on a dancer in the country. In his Swabian homeland, people are proud of this prominent son of the city, not least of all because he has remained loyal to his native city until this day. As principal dancer, he belongs to the permanent ensemble of the Stuttgart Ballet for 20 years.

Offstage, the 39-year-old is unpretentious, calm and sociable. The hustle and bustle around him comes along with success, but that is not his focus. Friedemann Vogel simply wants to dance. This has always been the case. “As long as I can remember, dance has been in me,” he says with a smile. “At the age of four or five, I started dancing ballet. Since then I never wanted to do anything else.” Even now, he practises for several hours every day driven by high expectations of himself.

Care and precision as foundation for top performance

Vogel is inspired by his surroundings for his art form. This also includes sports cars. In fact, he has been driving Porsche for more than ten years. “For me, as a Stuttgart native, there was actually no other choice. I've always dreamed of owning my own Porsche at some point.” Powerful dynamics, but also silent gliding in hybrid mode, beautiful curves, precise movements, the demand for perfection – these are all parallel attributes between Porsche and ballet for Friedemann Vogel.

“In my eyes, dance and sports cars have a lot in common. The body of an athlete, for example, has to be fine-tuned very precisely like an engine and the chassis.” You can also see that in Vogel. His training has resulted in a perfect body. But it is not just for show. Each muscle serves art, expression and emotion. At Porsche, they call it “form follows function”. With strong discipline and hard work, Friedemann creates the basis for making his performance on stage completely effortless.

This is the core of the common ground. Yes, sports cars and dancers both convey emotions; both are athletes. Above all, however, it is the high degree of care and precision hardly visible from the outside that lays the foundation for top performance in the background. For Vogel, the fact that Porsche has for many years been a major sponsor of both the John Cranko School and the Stuttgart Ballet as part of its cultural sponsorship programme just drives home the point.

As part of the series “Inspired by Porsche”, Friedemann Vogel has had the opportunity to translate the driving experience of the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid into his art form of dance. Here you can see how he interprets the mixture of quiet electric and powerful sport modes:

When you watch Friedemann Vogel dance, this thought inevitably comes to your mind: “What fascinating movement!”

You could say the same thing about Porsche sports cars.