Die Jungfrau Maleen
Adaption of a fairy tale by the Brüder Grimm
Helma Sanders-Brahms, Karine Saporta
Premiere: February 7th, 2008
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden
further performances: February 8th and 9th, 2008
Production and script: Helma Sanders-Brahms (D)
Choreography: Karine Saporta (F)
Light design: Thomas Mauch (D)
Stage design: Jean Bauer
Music: Abdourahmane Diop and Griot Company
Dancers: Susana Emanuela Beiro, David Wilde, Ofir Levy, Sophie Melis, Anne O. Poncet Staab, Daniela Maria Rod
"Die Jungfrau Maleen - Virgin Maleen", a gloomy fairy tale by the Brüder Grimm which was published only in a late edition of "Kinder- und Hausmärchen", tells a story that shows a strong correlation to our lives today beyond the typical imagery of witches’ houses in the woods and haunted castles between rose bushes. It is about war, loneliness, unfulfilled love, loss of identity, neglect and recollection.
Vita Helma Sanders-Brahms 
Vita Helma Sanders-Brahms
Born in 1940 Helma Sanders-Brahms studied German and English language in Cologne, did an internship with a radio station, and worked as TV announcer and model. During a stay in Italy she met Pier Paolo Pasolini with whom she worked together. Since 1969 she creates her own films which are often related to her own biography; she wrote almost all her scripts and produced many of her films herself. Her early films critically reflect the working environment and the situation of women in post-war Germany. “Unter dem Pflaster liegt der Strand” became a central film in the German Women’s Movement and the German student movement (68er-Bewegung). Particularly “Deutschland bleiche Mutter” made her one of the most important and internationally acclaimed directors of Germany. Her most recent films are “Mein Herz-Niemandem!” (19997), “Die Farbe der Seele” (2003) and “Clara” (2008) – a film about Clara Schuman. Additionally, Helma Sanders-Brahms did documentary films including “Jetzt leben – Juden in Berlin“ (1995). She has written radio dramas and books for instance “Gottfried Benn und Else Lasker Schüler” (Berlin 1997). In 1991 she was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de la France honor and in 1992 the prize of the deutsche Autorenstiftung. She is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin since 1997. She was honoured for her complete works in Spain (1978), Japan (1994 and 1997) and Portugal (1995).
Vita Karine Saporta
Vita Karine Saporta
Karine Saporta was born in 1948. She trained in classical dance and did her PhD in Sociology in Chicago. Between 1986 and 2005 she led the Centre Chorégraphique Nationaux of Caen Basse-Normandie. Since then she has realised different projects such as the opening of the “Laboratorium” in Saint-Denis and a centre for her dance company and other Parisian artists. Her choreographies, ranging from extreme slowness to intense vitality, generate a spectacular cinematographic movement-alchemy. Doing so, Karine Saporta does not avoid excess, and exaggeration. Her world full of female chimaeras and “femme fatales”, naïve free spirits and flying Madonnas, female warriors and romantic heroes paradoxically questions the concept of infinite femininity. Her choreographies relate to the history of dance and movement as such, to alienate the found. Over the past twenty years her approximately 30 pieces were comprised of circus, cabaret, flamenco, folk traditions, hip-hop and classical dance, baroque or repetitive minimalism; often before other choreographers picked up on these techniques.