Mariana Pineda (XXTanzTheater)

In the organizer's words:

Those who oppose a totalitarian system often put their lives at risk. Nevertheless, many people around the world are fighting for their freedom, many women for their right to equality, like the women who are currently taking to the streets in Afghanistan or Iran.

One of these women was Mariana Pineda, who became a freedom fighter in Granada in 1831 while still a teenager, rebelled against the Spanish king Fernando VII and died a martyr's death. Federico García Lorca - himself a convinced socialist and opponent of Franco's regime - created a literary monument to Mariana Pineda a good 100 years later with a "popular romance" named after her.

Mariana Pineda helps her lover, a revolutionary, escape from prison. For the insurgents, she embroiders a red flag with the inscription "Law-Freedom-Equality". Soon she is harassed by Judge Pedrosa - judicially and sexually - and sentenced to death.

The political poet and playwright Federico García Lorca met a similar fate as his title heroine: in 1936 he was killed by Franco's henchmen, and his plays were completely banned on Spanish stages until Franco's death in 1975.

Inspired by Lorca's text, the collective XXTanzTheater, choreographed by Bibiana Jiménez, develops a surreal dance theater piece that tells us about Mariana Pineda's love story and adventures, lets us look deep into the soul of the title heroine, and connects the story with current socio-political developments. A composition by Valerij Lisac, who is known throughout Germany for his performative and intermedial concert and music theater forms, will be created especially for this occasion.

The independent Cologne dance ensemble XXTanzTheater received funding to realize the next world premiere as a co-production with the Cologne Opera. The ensemble thus prevailed in a selection round against nine competitors who had applied to the joint call for proposals of the Cultural Office of the City of Cologne and the Cologne Opera, in order to be able to produce on a larger scale than under the otherwise usual conditions of the independent scene. The existing tradition of a joint invitation to tender by the Opera and the Cultural Office is continued every two years under the directorship of Hein Mulders at the Cologne Opera.