The residency is part of the creative development of a new stage interpretation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Die sieben Todsünden, a work situated at the intersection of music, theatre and dance.
The research focuses on Anna’s internal fragmentation and on how this division can become physically and theatrically visible. In the original structure, Anna I and Anna II represent two aspects of the same woman: reason and emotion. In this new interpretation, this fragmentation is expanded through the presence of multiple bodies, transforming an internal conflict into movement, image and relationship.
During the residency, the research will focus on developing the movement and choreographic language of the work. Through individual physical research and composition, concepts such as control, desire, resistance, adaptation and submission will be explored.
The aim is to develop movement and compositional tools through which Anna’s gradual fragmentation can become visible on stage, not as an illustration of the narrative, but as an embodied process revealing the tension between individual desire, external expectations and the need to survive.

Melina Bountzika

Melina Bountzika is a contemporary dance artist, creator, and movement educator based in Luxembourg. She is a graduate of Aktina Higher Professional Dance School in Athens and holds a Certificate in Video Art through a programme of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Her practice combines contemporary dance, improvisation, composition, and theatre, exploring human behaviour and the ways in which reactions, relationships, and internal conflicts are expressed through the body and movement.
Her experience includes working as a dancer and developing her own choreographic material, including for the hybrid opera ENYPNION, as well as performing as a non-verbal actress in COPERTA, a children’s theatre production by Rotondes, directed by Andrea Buzzetti. She has also presented OGYGIA/Nudity and Beyond the Surface as works-in-progress and has collaborated with organisations including TROIS C-L, Rotondes, MUSE a.s.b.l., and LUCODA. Productions she has been involved in have been presented, among others, at Buergermeeschtersdag 2026 and Gala de l’Inclusion in Luxembourg, as well as Festival Visioni in Italy.
In 2026, she created the six-month Creative Dance Laboratory, focusing on improvisation, and composition. She is currently involved in several projects, including working as a choreographer and dancer in Maria Devitzaki’s new production, a contemporary re-reading of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s Die sieben Todsünden.

Masterclass

Through guided exercises, participants are invited to explore different physical states, movement qualities, and ways of responding to specific stimuli and constraints.
The practice draws on tools from contemporary dance and physical theatre, using repetition, transformation, space, interaction with others, and simple objects as starting points for improvisation and composition. Voice and speech are introduced as additional tools for improvisation, exploring their relationship with the body and the ways in which they can influence or emerge through movement.
The aim is for participants to discover different ways of generating material and to explore how a spontaneous physical response can gradually develop into a conscious performative composition.
The workshop is open to participants aged 16 and above, with basic to advanced experience in dance, theatre, or other performance practices. Professional experience is not required.