Dance theatre based on drama fragments by Friedrich Schiller

Muslims, Christians and Jews have fought one another brutally over the course of history. At the same time, they lived together peacefully elsewhere. In the middle of the 16th century, the Ottomans were expanding to Europe. In order to defend against them militarily, the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem was established on the island of Malta; it was called the Order of Malta. In 1565, the »Great Siege« of the island of Malta by the Ottoman fleet took place; it was overcome by the Christian Knights of Malta.

Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) addressed the knights’ borderline situation between spiritual community, total subjugation and sacrifice for a higher spiritual goal for almost 20 years up until his death. However, the planned tragedy remained unfinished.

Irina Pauls, born in Leipzig, studied dance at the Palucca Schule Dresden and choreography at the Theaterhochschule Hans Otto in Leipzig. After directing the dance theatre in Altenburg, she founded the Tanztheater at the Schauspiel Leipzig in 1990, which she headed until it was dissolved in 1998. She has worked in Oldenburg, Heidelberg and Freiburg i. Br. as well as internationally. She has teaching assignments in Salzburg and Leipzig.

Irina Pauls focuses on the essence of Friedrich Schiller’s spiritual world. To do so, she brings together five dancers with the vocal ensemble amarcord, which was founded in Leipzig in 1992 and has been a guest in over 50 countries on all the world’s continents.