Few names are as closely linked to the future of dance as that of Marlene Monteiro Freitas. The choreographer is known for her rigorously structured yet highly expressive works, earning her the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale. From 2026, she will also help shape the artistic direction of Berlin’s Volksbühne, alongside Florentina Holzinger. After her 2020 Summer Festival appearance with the world premiere of Mal, she now returns with her latest piece. Nôt — Creole for “night” — explores storytelling in the spirit of “1001 Nights”, blending dance and live music into a nocturnal
narrative session on life, death, dreams, and reality. Like in a Goya painting, the darker aspects of human nature emerge under the cover of night. Following its world premiere on the vast open-air Cour d’honneur stage at the Festival d’Avignon, Freitas and her team come to Hamburg to create a new indoor adaptation — set to (very likely) launch the Summer Festival with unforgettable force.
