Dancing around the maypole: twisting - winding - stamping - circling. In May, the volunteer fire department organizes the maypole-setting, a tradition that once united the village community of the region. It is still a shared memory of intergenerational remembrance. What remained after the KOHLE? Young people in particular are still committed to maintaining this tradition today. Our joint dance aims to tie in with history and stories, rethink it, bring it back to the people and thus help to revive dancing. To do this, we go directly to the people, but also to places that have disappeared and to the theater stage.

The audience follows the artists on their expedition into the lignite mining region in the southern Leipzig area. What remains after decades of upheaved earth?

Irina Pauls and her team take the audience on an expedition into the southern Leipzig region, where lignite open-pit mining has turned the earth over for decades and entire villages have disappeared. What is left behind? The traditional Maypole dance once connected the people of these places. In a joyful celebration, the maypole trunk was decorated with colorful ribbons. But what happens when there is no maypole anymore? What forms and movements can revive the sense of community through dance? What stories are told about the relationship between people and the deformed, hollowed-out landscape? And what do city dwellers even know about it?

Using video recordings of the dance piece SÜDRAUM by Irina Pauls, performed at Schauspiel Leipzig in 1994, and the MAIBAUMSCHWOF performances in April and May 2024 in the Leipzig South area, the artists share their experiences and the intense process of research and exploration. The audience is invited to dance together. This brings the journey of the maypole dance to life – from the past into the present.