Omer Krieger

With “Amphi II”, artist Omer Krieger brings a performance to Dresden in which not only the bodies of the seven dancers but also the history of the venues become part of the choreography.

The first part takes place on September 18 at the Königsufer – on a site that was built and used during the Nazi era as a rallying point for mass political gatherings. The view across the Elbe, the vastness of the site, and the ability to gather large crowds were all part of a deliberate staging of public spectacle and power. On September 19, the performance continues at the Festspielhaus Hellerau, a site that began as a visionary school of rhythm, became a police academy and police weapons training school during the Nazi era, and was used by the Red Army after 1945.

Between these two historic and iconic Dresden sites, “Amphi II” unfolds as a dynamic monument, forging connections and exploring what it means today to stand together in public space, to move, and to become part of a group, and where community turns into a crowd.

The starting point is a dance by choreographer Noa Eshkol, which she created in 1953 for a commemoration marking the tenth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and which was performed only once in the amphitheater of the House of Ghetto Fighters in Israel. Omer Krieger transposes this historical work into the present. Archival traces meet new movements; discipline meets detachment, grief meets energy, memory meets contemporary bodies. The result is not a historical reconstruction. “Amphi II” brings history to life right where it took place.

Over the course of two evenings, the performance moves from the Königsufer to Hellerau and poses a question that takes on new urgency in light of current political developments: How can people come together without becoming uniform?

„Amphi is an attempt at a universal movement, way of standing together, and form of commemoration, that is not bound to identity. This was and is an anti-fascist dance, in 1953 as in 2026.“ 

– Omer Krieger