it's. history in the everyone stops. now from the fish from the fish eyes. digital africa starts december twelfth on t.w. . either welcome to today's euro max the highlights of the week here's a quick look at what's coming up. why see speciality speculators cookies are especially popular during the up in season. gold just glossy is the new correctly counting the show's dreamy images. and bigger ballet

a larger than life performance of swan like. on the sixth of december children in many european countries get treats m small presents to celebrate st nicholas day but in some alpine regions another carrot to join sent nicholas on the day the crumb posts is described as half goat half demon during the christmas season he punishes children who have misbehaved all reports. travel south to do his best scary krampus impression. this krampus is are on the loose in the austrian village of sun to johann in pungo the wild untamed figures are spurred on by saint nicholas and his angels and right in the midst of our reporter. early in the day in some two hundred here around sixty kilometers south of salzburg the tradition of the compost is still going strong it's popular

throughout the whole region and always cook heads one of the local compost groups he founded it back in the one nine hundred eighty s. . it's made up of a saint nicholas angels a basket carrier and more than a dozen compas it's. he's played the figure since he was a boy. from age twelve on you're running along in various villages and at some point you say hey let's have our own group. so i talked a couple of friends into it and at the beginning there was just nine of us. now we have an eighteen krampus is sent nicholas angels and basket carries the clothes. so so actual time to show you how it all works that's going to change so we can get started good. we have a costume for you. that's it time to move over you have to take off your pants.

evelyn wait a minute. i had to get undressed you know for a partner. there's a good reason why you have to strip or even though it's below freezing outside the sheepskin costume keeps you so warm that it's pointless to wear anything under it a custom like this can be used for about five years before the leather wears out. next there's the belt which the compas is used to make a racket and finally the mask all in all the costume weighs about thirty kilograms . i've heard it hard it's really hot inside here the mask is very tight i can barely speak i see next to nothing just a little through the eye in the midst lots i have no idea how i'm going to survive this day or. there's no time for doubt says things are getting serious now st nicholas with his angels and the basket carrier are leading the procession. to group visits a farm on the outskirts of santa. i think greetings to all in this house and

nicholas speaks to man and mouse. because there are only well behaved children here everyone will receive a gift. the compas is stay back a little the sheer number of scary masks is enough to make an impression after the presents have been distributed the nice part of the visit begins the family treats the cook passed group to a round of local shops. i think you know it's the theatre see until this day is a highlight of the advent season it really makes you look forward to christmas and the fans this is a part of our tradition human. rights accorded but it's awful and highlight this for the kids it's a wonderful experience to see the compas is and of course st nicholas and the angels every year they love it that. time to head off for the next performance fittingly the compas is are packed into cattle cars for the trip they'll appear four times in all today on other days the group can even put in twice that many

performances. at one of the stops the houses toasty warm. to warm the reporter is dripping with sweat under the sheep skin and the tight mask makes it hard to breathe he's about to give up. but after countless presents have been distributed and the last carolus song the job is done. really enjoy a box out. here sides. with the west german crackers we've talked about how they're called. but they're still not quite finished the people have sunk yohan expect the group to take part in the krampus run where more than a dozen local groups present themselves. as short. or not or so i did it's an absolutely beats seven hours and this full body sheepskin has given the phrase stewing in your own juices

a whole new meaning anyway what i like most is that the group accepted me right off as if i were one of the road. and i've definitely gained an. answer to and i'm the richer for it. while than actual we stay with advent traditions with the specular cookie which is a common seasonal trees and germany belgium and the netherlands that made using a special spice mix containing cinnamon and cloves among other things today we visit a belgian bakery that has been making them for almost two hundred years. the concept of central market square in brussels is popular all year round with tourists but during the christmas season it's particularly special and belgians unofficial national cookie this pickle knows makes it even better.

one of my favorite cookies and they were there. for me just completely associated with this time of year with nicholas i would say crunchy. butter for sugar for an amount of christmas markets would realize a cup of coffee. this spiced cookie has a long tradition which is a pessimist by the missile don't want bakery. the classic arrives he with cinnamon and clothes is very popular but there are all kinds of skin color was on sale here . you. look pretty good new to see the best known and best selling one is this traditional specular six. but i'm all the second one is with almonds and then there's this one with either chocolate or vanilla cardio and it along with different places because those come in different shapes st nicholas is a particularly popular at the moment the bakers to shape the day with traditional

wood molds that also make a difference regarding special flavor salim says he has been working here for almost thirty years. he refuses to reveal the full secret behind the maze. but he does divulge that the main ingredients are flour butter brown sugar and the spice mix that includes cinnamon and clothes. during the spanish empire the spaniards travelled around the world along i don't bank spices that gradually found their way into european cookie recipes. isn't easy to make. you have to get the proportions right that's why we're sticking to our traditional recipe. so that we've stayed attached to our roots. when the dough is ready it is pressed into wooden molds with the traditional my

teeth because going into the oven. is regarded as a christmas trees in most other european countries it is always available in belgium. because we make spec you know it's all year round we sell it for valentine's day easter and also in summer but of course particularly at the end of the year you feel more lonely in belgium and around the world as we ship it all over to our online customers. alexander is a seventh generation stay close make he and his brother work with their father today maintaining an old family tradition. with the i was greeted by my world grown five eighteen twenty nine for one year before the creation of the belgian euros one hundred years. i mean it is very.

to this day missed out on what has resisted the urge to industrialize its production it has brought it out and opened several other stores around belgian. they've also developed new products including the smash box. it's a huge stick a loss that comes with a hammer. it's handy if a particular recipe calls was because it was crumbs but apparently there's a deeper meaning and if there's a fear of this mad books in this way. for the. debates a game is inserted to do so. but then they still don't dwell bakers don't experiment with is the ingredients with a spec lewis and why with a it's clearly a recipe for success. now to a less christmassy end of year tradition every year the italian tire manufacturer

apparently issues a calendar which tends to feature scantily clad ladies but where in the past photographers have staged their models in erotic poses the calendar has now evolved to showcase more artistic photography for the twenty nine thousand edition scottish stuff and albert watson wanted to focus on people dreaming of things. glamour on the red carpets with halle berry. she had heat. and lets you see a kiss stop. and right in the thick of it scottish photographer albert watson. for his parolee calendar he photographed renowned actresses models and dancers. just like in films each had a particular role to play. the

idea was that we made four little movies and put it together as one movie and these are the stills from that movie so that was the basic driving force of the idea of a boat for women that are thinking about their futures dreaming and visions. model an actress. plays a painter who lives together with her boyfriend in a small room dreaming of making it to the top the forty year old french star posed for the calendar for the first time eighteen years ago. this time around she appeared as a modern self-confident woman. it's not only being. an object of desire small like gives. and spirit but being a woman. about creativity being strong and defendants know what she wants in life.

american prima ballerina misty copeland's together with her colleague calvin royal the third play a couple that dreams of an international career this time watson wanted the men who appeared in the calendar to be more than just props. for both dancers aspiring to be successful and wanting to dance in paris. it was amazing to be able to remember what that feeling was like as a kid growing up aspiring to today and it's. the calendar published by the italian tire maker is being issued for the forty sixth time it gained cult status back in the one nine hundred ninety s. as the couch featuring many top models showing lots of skin shot by some of the world's best known photographers. the calendar has evolved since that now it features more artistic images that emphasize the model's strong

personalities. watson also dislike the idea of a pin up calendar though the images exude their own eroticism he clarified any questions well in advance of shooting. for me the way i'm handling that is i simply ask the woman would you be photographed in the nude yes or no if she says no it's the end of the discussion. young american actress julia garner is best known for roles in popular television series in the calendar she plays a photographer fascinated by nature. the twenty four year old was surprised and delighted when the renowned photographer asked her to pose for perelli. that i was not shot but it is shots the right you know when it's mixed emotions or

just it's you know if you're shooting for proudly and and just knowing you know proudly i always know that calendar they get the best artist you hollywood star halle berry hosted the calendars gala presentation in milan the ten day shoot took place in miami and new york and no expense was spared. i think that the whole idea that you have freedom that's why it's a great project because you have freedom and they support you to do your vision so that's why it's a great project for sure very few of those in the world very few. it looks more like an exclusive photographic collection than a calendar and for the first time there's a picture every week rather than just once a month the limited edition isn't sold in shops the calendars are only given away to the company's customers and celebrities.

when the classical ballet swan lake was first proposed an eight hundred seventy six its original choreographer felt the ballet was danceable since then it has developed and found success all over the world but director derek deane decided to make things harder with the shanghai ballet company he brings forty eight instead of the usual six teams wong's onto the stage we went to a performance from berlin to see how the dances of void ruffling feathers on the crowded stage. first six then nine then twenty four in the end forty eight swann's downstairs a press call in berlin's board of museum it's one lake on a scale never seen before staged by celebrated british choreographer derek dean. it is there it is like in the world i mean there hasn't been a swan lake of this size in a proceeding in theater and not even you know the paris opera the wall ballet the

kirov the bolshoi nobody has ever created something like this so be very interesting to see over here it's reaction to this i call it the tsunami of swans the forty eight swans epitomize in a sense and beauty but achieving their seeming ease requires perfect technique the smallest mistake would destroy the illusion. ok so i just had to really pick her up in a spotlight as soon as she starts to move ok. his movements must be strong yet smooth and sensuous dean strives for perfection in that shanghai ballet we were very much on the emotional side of the downs not just forty eight girls being in live being in the precise place we very very much were on the quality of the movement and the emotion of the movement as well. for the two soloists in particular performing on

a completely new stage requires a great deal of concentration they have to find their way through three times as many swans as usual yet make it look as easy as if they weren't there at all. i am a bit nervous it's my first time on the stage and i'm still a little jet lagged or they were all really excited. but with derek dean there in the best of hands he's made his name choreographing productions performed in huge arena. yes dean has studied stagings of swan lake throughout history from the premiere in eight hundred seventy seven to modern day performances he says there have been major changes. you know where it's well it was for us before it was a disaster i mean everybody booed at the performance is everybody said the music was trying to dreadful the choreography was appalling and they had to put the production away for many years and then it was rethought redone with the same music

and through the years it became this leave. the fairy tale about prince secrets desperate attempt to save swan princess or death from the spell cast by an evil sorcerer is a perennial favorite when derek dean first staged swan lake in one thousand nine hundred seventy in london princess diana was among his most ardent admirers. she would come true she would turn up unannounced she would come and have a church she would just come and sit with his and she was terribly easy and very comfortable and there was no sides to her she wasn't performing she was of being the princess of wales she was just being a person and it was wonderful to see that side of her but her connection with ballet was tremendous and these ballerinas hope to find such an enthusiastic response in milena as well at the press conference of the buddha museum they

demonstrated their impressive talents the youngest dancer is just seventeen. that howard and this is my very first show i just graduated from dancing school. the most challenging part for me is to dance in such a big group there's a big difference between twenty four swans and forty eight. but is it quantity over quality on the contrary derek dean and the shanghai ballet have performed swan lake repeatedly for international audiences to great at. name. still giving them pure a classical ballet you're not changing the structure you're not changing the level you're giving them the best product you can give them it's just it's just this overwhelming sensation of people just bring something else to the ballet. the show lives up to its advertising slogan with more songs than you can count derek dean's version of swan lake is a great ballet this won't be performing its one song any time soon. now

to art of a different car and julio are now our common doing as a street artist but doesn't dabble in graffiti murals or political slogans he has an amazing ability to copy iconic paintings and recreate these works on walls in unexpected places they're so good that you need to look twice to determine that they aren't the original old masters. when german artist caspar duffy treated me he painted to men contemplating the moon in eighteen nineteen he would never have guessed that a copy of his work would appear on a wall in southern spain some two hundred years later. until the skies the most work. that the transition from the white house in from light to very dark has to be just right. i don't get it right then no one will be

able to understand the painting. just who you and i are combining lives and works in the end illusion provinces month ago in southern spain he's mastered the art of copying the works of great painters such as mourning a rembrandt and. commanding doesn't paint on canvas but to richly only in isolated spots abandoned houses over the porch of man again for instance here a painting by spanish artist in new york who needs. becomes a window to see. these ruins elevated not far from the city. where you're tapping and then you too are used to only pain in the studio until a good feeding artist friend of mine asked if i wanted to come with him one day that i like. your anger started painting a picture on the wall and i really like the relationship between the painting and the environment and so i continue doing that. it is. beyond just needs about six

hours to copy a painting and about full for the frame he uses a clever techniques that combines colors and shading to create the impression that it's three dimensional. to men contemplating the moon epitomizes the romantic view of nature. banding captures it on camera and produce a picture to instagram nature as a creative dialogue between painting and the surrounding landscape. there are two men looking at the moon from a hill. i chose this place because the landscape is just as hilly and we can see trees olive trees which are typical for this area. but if you want to see these pictures you'll have to find them first they're often exhibited so to speak in the middle of nowhere combining wants to create a new appreciation for art and he's very playful that's why he deliberately chose

to paint yarn for man as a made a sleek narrow highway wasn't that s.-a. i'm interested in the relationship between an abandoned space on the one hand and work of art an incredibly valuable object on the other. it's taking the work out of its context from a museum that protects and perpetuates it to somewhere with a completely opposite character that's what interests me. i mean. come on. being studied at the university of fine arts in malaga. he has a small studio in the old town where he prepares his webs. he's never painted his own region because he's been obsessed with paintings from a bygone centuries since his childhood. he was sent to a fine arts academy for children at the age of six one of the teachers particularly

impressed him. he gave me a present and on the wrapping paper he wrote colors or sounds that can't be heard and sounds are colors that can't be seen clearly you have to make music with your colors i still lived by this rule today. recreating great works of art. in a usual place and. that's all from us for today i hope you enjoyed our euro much highlights i'll see you again in the new year but will be back with more european lifestyle and culture next week.

come on. come. on. come on. see the mob. actually waiting. for a lifeline to syria. the more continues to haunt the conflict from syria. i'm trying to reach them but nobody answers. the war on my phone. w. . more. or.

hears what's coming up on the border slips so much movement in the thinking this means. thank you so much you don't matter as much psycho but all that means for the taking of course. going to sleep every weekend here on t w. time for an upgrade. our furniture that grows all buy. a house with no roof. design highlights you can make yourself. trans tips and tricks that

will turn your home to something special. upgrade yourself with d w's interior design channel on you tube. natural riches. precious resources. and a rewarding investment. of farmland has been called ethiopia's. the country has an abundant supply and leases it to international coverage for giants the government has a high export revenues and the corporations high profit margins. but not everyone benefits from the booming business. even when i saw the bulldozers clearing the land i was devastated can give me how could they bulldoze the land without my permission in the way they knew it belonged to me. expropriations environmental destruction starvation. the price government

and corporate greed. the someone else of a country. that donkeys fear no hyenas. starts december twenty ninth on d. w. the. police in france have reportedly detained. almost a thousand people across the country as the so-called gala vist process has shut down parts of paris for a fourth consecutive weekend the movement was sparked by anger over a planned feels hacks increase although it's since been scrapped protests are continuing of the various other issues.