Hype the Pain
Miller de Nobili
Behind every meme lies a truth we can’t describe. In their new production ‘Hype the Pain’, Miller de Nobili – winners of the 2025 Dresden State Capital Sponsorship Award – turn their gaze to the digital world — a space where irony becomes a coping mechanism, where fake spreads faster than facts, and fleeting images quietly shape ideologies. Laughter hides the pain of a biased world: jokes become shields, discomfort slips beneath punchlines, and the call for attention transforms into performance.
Together with a cast of five performers, blending breaking, urban, and contemporary dance with theatrical forms, Maria Chiara de Nobili & Alexander Miller explore how digital humour shapes our emotions and beliefs. Movement and fragmented voices collide into a dissonant chorus, echoing the overstimulation and distortion of the online world.
Is it still a game when we no longer know who is playing? Are we shaping the digital age — or is it shaping us?
Miller de Nobili was founded in 2020 by Maria Chiara de’ Nobili and Alexander Miller to artistically combine their passions for breakdancing, contemporary and urban dance theatre, and performative techniques. Both completed the MA programme in choreography at the Palucca University of Dance Dresden. Miller de Nobili has had a close partnership with HELLERAU since its foundation. The first full-length work, ‘PACK’, premiered in 2021 as part of the TANZPAKT festival ‘Dancing About’ in HELLERAU and received an invitation to the Tanzplattform Deutschland in 2022. Most recently, Miller de Nobili was a guest at HELLERAU in March 2024 with ‘Labyrinth’. In 2025, Miller de Nobili received the sponsorship award from the state capital of Dresden.
Choreography: Maria Chiara de Nobili & Alexander Miller
In collaboration with the dancers: Nam Tran Xuan, Niklas Capel, Giulia Russo, Alessandro Ottaviani, Yuexuan Gui
Music: Gábor Halász
Light Design: Geohwan Ju
Scenography: Sabine Mäder
Costume Design: Kim Schölch & Till Lukas Fiedler
Production management: Ksenia Lukina
Prouduction by Miller de Nobili in co-production with HELLERAU – European Centre for the Arts, Residenzzentrum tanz+, and Choreographisches Zentrum Heidelberg. Funded by the Office for Culture and Monument Protection Dresden, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, and the Dresden Foundation for Art & Culture of the Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden. Supported by a residency at Theater Freiburg.
Further supported by the incredible generosity of Startnext Community, and especially Cornel Doswald whose support has been instrumental in realizing this project.
