Program
11.11.26, 7pm, Gala Show
Opening of the 41st International Pantomime Theater Festival in Dresden, featuring all the artists who traveled to the event.
12.11.26, 7pm, Short Stories, DÍRTZ Theatre, (Germany/France)
A physical puppet theatre Tryptichon and a poetic exploration of bodies, characters, and perspectives. Mime / Contemporary Dance / Puppetry
13.11.26, 7pm, Sensus Communis, Divadlo Continuo (Czech Republic)
Sound—a natural part of our everyday lives—takes on a mythical dimension: it becomes an object of exploration, carries memories, and becomes a source of storytelling.
14.11.26, 6pm, The Letter, Paolo Nani (Denmark)
An internationally celebrated Danish classic of clowning and a show for people of all ages.
So. 15.11.26, 11am, Jekyll on Ice (for kids and families), Paolo Nani (Denmark)
A crazy ice cream show for the whole family!
So 15.11.26, 6pm, Untold Stories, Silent Rocco (Austria)
What if you could wear emotions like masks? A poetic journey without words.
Workshops
7. and 8.11.26, 10am – 3pm, Workshop with À fleur de Peau (France)
“Beyond Words” – Dynamics and Qualities of Movement with Michael Bugdahn (Germany) and Denise Namura (Brazil).
14.11.26, 10 – 12am, Workshop with Joylyn Secunda (Canada)
Movement techniques, collaborative group exercises and embodied writing to support you in creating your very own mime pieces
Exhibition
11.11. – 15.11.26, Exhibition ‘The European History of Pantomime’
Nov. 11, 7pm Opening Gala
The Opening Gala offers a first glimpse of this year’s festival programme. The artists and ensembles already in Dresden will present short excerpts from their productions.
On stage, you’ll see Silent Rocco from Leipzig, the french groups DÍRTZthéatre from Vesseaux and À Fleur de Peau from Paris, the participants of the weekend workshop presenting the results of their collaborative work, and the host artists from the Mimenstudio Dresden.
Divadlo Continuo from Malovice and Paolo Nani from Vordingborg will arrive later and will be presented during the following festival days.
An exciting evening of mime, movement, puppetry and unexpected encounters – and the opening of four days of international theatre.
Duration: approx. 70 minutes Recommended age: 12+
foto: Silvia Machado
12.11.26, 7pm, Short Stories, DÍRTZ Theatre, (Germany/France)
A physical puppet theatre Tryptichon and a poetic exploration of bodies, characters, and perspectives. Mime / Contemporary Dance / Puppetry
Pantomime, contemporary dance and puppetry come together in a poetic exploration of bodies, figures and perspectives. The interplay between the living body and the puppet constantly challenges our understanding of what is normal, real and alive.
Who carries whom – the puppet or the dancer? Who manipulates whom? And what does this mutual dependency reveal about us?
With humour and tenderness, the three pieces explore metamorphosis, ageing, relationships and human connection:
Alias
A head that has not been spared by the bumpy road of life. Shoulders hardly strong enough to hold up the weight of existence. A tyrannical and insensitive ego. A wind that blows and brushes us. A wind that strips us.
Nonna(s) don’t cry
To our mothers, the mothers of our mothers, the mothers of our grandmothers … who carry us and who we carry inside of us. Always.
Le troisième Pas ( the third step)
I am because we are. A poetic point of view on interdependence.
The pieces are driven by the performers’ exceptional physicality and precision, fluid movements and a seemingly weightless presence that creates moments of poetry and wonder.
Duration: 60min
Recommended age: 7+
foto: Martin Griffin
foto: Pierre Rigo
foto: Pierre Rigo
13.11.26, 7pm, Sensus Communis, Divadlo Continuo (Czech Republic)
Are there things we can learn only through listening?
“Sensus Communis” explores the intersection of sound poetry, sound puppetry and object theatre. The title refers to “common sense” – but rather than appealing to reason, the performance explores physical and sensory ways of perceiving the world around us.
Sound, an integral part of everyday life, takes on a mythical dimension. It becomes an object of exploration, a vessel for memories and a source of storytelling.
Using both electronic and analogue technologies, Continuo creates a distinctive form of physical theatre and puppetry. Sound puppetry gradually transforms into object theatre, telling the story of two enigmatic beings who investigate the mechanisms of objects that have lost their original function. What remains are melancholic traces of a world that has passed.
Divadlo Continuo
Divadlo Continuo is an international independent theatre company led by director and artistic director Pavel Štourač. Pavel and Helena Štourač began working together in 1990 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Since 1995, the company has been based in Malovice, a small village in South Bohemia.
Continuo’s productions resist easy categorisation. Movement, live music, puppets, physical theatre, acrobatics, dance and a distinctive visual language come together to create the unique theatrical poetry of each production.
Duration: 60min
Recommended age: 12+
foto: Michal Hancovsky
foto: Michal Hancovsky
Artistic Team
Anna Luňáková – project author, sound artist, dramaturgist, performer
Jakub Štourač – project author, sound designer, visual artist, performer
Pavel Štourač – directing supervision
Helena Štouračová – set design
Marek Turošík – dramaturgical collaboration
Production: Petr Hromek, Martin Mikl
14.11.26, 6pm, The Letter, Paolo Nani (Denmark)
A Classic of Clowning
Since its premiere in 1992, the production has been performed in more than 40 countries, from Greenland to China and from Spain to Japan. Alone on stage, with just a few props that fit into a suitcase, Paolo Nani brings 15 scenes to life, all based on the same story but presented in 15 completely different versions.
The story is told backwards, as a Western, a silent film, a horror movie or a circus act – with surprises, slapstick and dark humour. And not a single word is spoken.
With remarkable precision, breathtaking pace and countless comic details, Paolo Nani creates a brilliant piece of visual comedy that keeps audiences laughing from beginning to end.
Paolo Nani
Paolo Nani is an actor, director and coach at the Paolo Nani Teater in Vordingborg. He also works as a producer and agent in Italy and France. He has appeared five times at the Cologne Comedy Festival and four times at the London International Mime Festival, as well as at numerous other prestigious events.
He moved to Denmark in 1990. Just two years later, he created THE LETTER, produced in collaboration with Cantabile 2.
His precise yet playful approach to theatrical language creates performances that are universally accessible and understood – yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Duration: 70 minutes
Recommended age: 10+
foto: Simona Boccedi
foto: Cinzia Campana
foto: Cinzia Campana
15.11.26, 11am, Jekyll on Ice (for kids a families), Paolo Nani (Denmark)
A crazy ice cream show for the whole family!
Mr. Jekyll doesn’t quite understand how the world works – and presents a wonderfully quirky take on Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
The lovable Jekyll is an ice cream vendor with business methods all his own. The ice cream melts, the balloons burst – but the party goes on, filled with surprises, humour and fun.
Rather than telling a conventional story, the show focuses on the playful interaction between Jekyll and the audience. Together with the spectators, Paolo Nani creates a world of absurd and poetic moments.
Jekyll’s extraordinary ice cream truck comes fully equipped with huge speakers, a fog machine, a real freezer and a gigantic air pump. The performance builds from one unexpected scene to the next, featuring increasingly enormous balloons, music and comic escalation.
The show culminates in a spontaneous rock band performance with the audience, followed by a big ice cream party in which everyone can join.
The Artists
Paolo Nani – performer and director, Vordingborg, Denmark
Dramaturgy: Paolo Nani, Frede Guldbrandsen, Valentino Dragano
Production: Paolo Nani Teater
Duration: 60 minutes
Recommended age: 5+
foto: Davide Mantovani
foto: Davide Mantovani
foto: Søren Meisner
So 15.11.26, 6pm, Untold Stories, Silent Rocco (Austria)
What if the screen in your hand completely captivated you? What if you could give your heartbeat to someone else? Or what if a glass of water could transport you to another world?
Without scenery, props or words, Silent Rocco transforms the stage into a dreamscape where emotions become tangible, objects hold secrets and the impossible seems real. Untold Stories brings together a selection of his finest scenes – poetic, surprising and full of imagination.
Silent Rocco
Rocco discovered his passion for mime at an early age. At just five years old, he performed as a robot in his older brother’s breakdance group. In the 1990s, he was inspired by the brilliant sketches of Canadian mime artist Michel Courtemanche. At the age of 14, he created his first mime performance for a school talent show – and won.
Largely self-taught at first, Rocco later completed professional mime training at Die Etage performing arts school in Berlin and attended master classes at the Berlin Mimecentrum.
As a solo artist and ensemble performer, Silent Rocco has appeared at theatre and mime festivals around the world, including in Colombia, Thailand, Slovakia, South Korea and Portugal. This year, his journey takes him to Turin, London, Kilkis and Thessaloniki – and to Dresden.
Alongside his own productions, Silent Rocco teaches mime workshops and masterclasses for beginners and professionals and supports performing artists in developing their own productions.
Duration: 45 minutes
Recommended age: 8+
foto: Anna Solcova
7. and 8.11.26, 10am – 3pm, Workshop with À fleur de Peau (France)
Beyond Words” — Dynamics and Qualities of Movement
With Denise Namura and Michael Bugdahn from the Paris-based company À Fleur de Peau.
Drawing on their training in pantomime, dance, physical theater, and circus arts, the two choreographers have developed a language all their own: a form of dance that is uniquely and closely linked to meaningful gestures, symbolic content, and a kind of semiotics of movement. Through this body language, they tell stories that constantly oscillate between the everyday and the abstract, between the individual and the universal, between emotion and burlesque, and between tragedy and comedy. The result of this original work is a series of hybrid choreographic pieces that—transcending any rigid categorization—place a strong emphasis on interaction and connection with the audience.
The workshop focuses primarily on conveying the language characteristic of the group À fleur de peau and its unique creative process. When working on the choreographic realiza-tion, particular emphasis is placed on the dynamics and quality of movement as well as on scenic composition.
The workshop program includes various exercises on the following aspects: quality, dyna-mics, and musicality of movement; segmentation of body parts; eye contact and stage presence; subtext in dance movement; spatial awareness; responsiveness and coordinati-on; and the creation of visual and choreographic sequences.
The goal is to develop simple structures based on a shared vocabulary developed during the workshop: gestures, texts, choreographic scores, and the participants’ individual physical qualities.
At the conclusion of the workshop, a public presentation is planned as part of the gala eve-ning marking the festival’s opening, featuring individual modules developed during the workshop. Denise and Micha will also present excerpts from their own repertoire.
The Instructors
Denise Namura, born in Brazil, and Michael Bugdahn, born in Germany, live and work in Paris. After a diverse training in dance, mime, and theater, they developed their own artistic style.
In 1989, they founded the company À Fleur de Peau. Since then, they have created around 45 original pieces as well as works for renowned ensembles and institutions, including the Ballet National de la Ville de São Paulo, the Cia. Portuguesa de Bailado Contempo-râneo, and the Bern Ballet.
They have received numerous awards for their work, including the First Prize for Choreo-graphy in Contemporary Dance for Young Audiences (2013) and the Prêmio Denilto Go-mes (2014).
Since 1984, they have organized and led countless workshops aimed at both professionals and amateurs. For many years, they have collaborated artistically with other dance and thea-ter companies in Germany and abroad, supporting their research and creative processes.
Workshop with Joylyn Secunda (Canada)
This workshop includes movement technique, collaborative group exercises, and embodied writing prompts to support students in creating their very own mime pieces. Our immersion in mime helps theatre artists working from all styles and approaches make clear, physical choices for the creation of environment, character, and story. The workshop will also explore conventions and aesthetic approaches that help the audience interpret and appreciate visual theatre. The pedagogy draws on Joylyn Secunda’s performance experience especially in mask theatre, mime, and puppetry, as well as intensive studies in Corporeal mime, pantomime, clown, and dance.
foto: David Cooper
Joylyn Secunda is a mime, clown, actor, and puppeteer based in Vancouver, Canada. They grew up in a performing arts family and have collaborated with their parents David Secunda (director) and Linda Arkelian (choreographer) on their first two solo shows. Joylyn has toured their solo mime show, The Routine to over a dozen cities across Canada, Australia, and Europe. In addition to their solo career, Joylyn has performed with theatre companies in Canada including the National Arts Centre, The Wonderheads, and Boca Del Lupo. Joylyn was mentored by Crystal Pite in the Startle Reflex Residency. They are a BFA Acting graduate from University of British-Columbia and have studied clown with John Turner (Mump & Smoot) and Aitor Basauri (Spymonkey), mime with Dean Evans (Cirque du Soleil), Corporeal mime at Théâtre Omnibus, and devised theatre at Dell’Arte International. Joylyn is currently continuing their theatre studies at École Philippe Gaulier. Joylyn loves to share their knowledge and has taught mime and physical theatre workshops to professional performers, university drama students, and children.
