Jefta van Dinther
“Mercury Rising”
November 21 & 22, 2026
Schwere Reiter
20.00 H
Tickets
25 EUR / 18 EUR reduced
Duration: approx. 60 minutes
“Mercury Rising” emerges from a phenomenological excavation of language. Created in collaboration with and performed by Dawn Jani Birley, Rita Mazza, and Lukas Malkowski, the performance charts both ancient and future non-linear languages, navigating the terrain between communication, gesture, agency, and physicality. Mercury Rising positions the body as a volatile site of discourse – a place where meaning is made, unmade, and transformed through movement.
While inviting its audience to decipher an abundance of signs, the work also explores the slippery nature of interpretation and ultimately releases us from the need for the literal or the explanatory. Incorporating multiple sign languages, and created for all audiences – including Deaf and hearing audiences – Mercury Rising addresses the complexity of human communication on the brink of a paradigm shift. What we share, in the end, is not certainty – but the impossibility of full understanding, and the urge to connect nonetheless.
Jefta van Dinther (he/him) is a choreographer and dancer. His work is characterized by a rigorous physical approach and always implies a staged research of movement itself. The moving body is the core of his practice but belongs to and interacts with a body of light, sound and materials. Central in his work is the question of what it means to be human, examined through its relation to society, community and environment but also to other forms of life such as the animal and other non-human entities. Jefta’s performances reach out into metaphysical or otherworldly realms and deal with notions of illusion, the visible and the invisible, synaesthesia, darkness, labour, sex, the uncanny, affect, voice and image.
Rita Mazza (they/she) is a Berlin-based performance artist, artistic director, and sign language choreographer specializing in visual sign performances. Born in Turin, Italy, Mazza studied at the University of Music, Performing Arts, Film, and New Media. Mazza played the lead role in the award-winning play “Children of a Lesser” God. In 2020, Mazza became an artist-in-residence with the Making a Difference project, where they explored combining sign language with dance, culminating in the 2021 solo performance “Dandelion II”. Recent notable works include: “Space 1880” (2021), “Matters of Rhythm” (2023) and “The Voice” (2024). Mazza also works as a curator and consultant in sign language art and accessibility questions in the arts.
Lukas Malkowski (he/they) is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adult) and performance maker based between Canada/Germany, working with embodiments of physics, voice, and Sign. He earned his BFA at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has choreographed full length works, ambient sets, music videos, and films for Sam Slater (Joker OST), LBT, 7th Plain (Luke Slater), John Wick 4, CTM Festival, Festival Trans Amérique and Schrittmacher Festival. His teaching practice Flowmentum is driven by embodiments of physics through sight and touch. He currently works with Guillaume Côté, Robert Lepage, and Naishi Wang, touring worldwide.
Dawn Jani Birley (she/they) is a Canadian-Finnish actor, translator and theatre consultant with a strong background in physical theatre and movement. Her work bridges signing and non-signing worlds, uniting creatives to challenge mainstream theatrical norms through multifaceted Storytelling that resonates with both Deaf and hearing audiences. She holds an MA in Physical Theatre with Merit from St. Mary’s University in London and is the founder of 1s1 Theatre in Toronto. Self-produced works are “To A Flame” (2025), “Qalb - A Journey of the Ego” (2024) and “Lady M (Margaret)” (2023). Their credits include “Lysistrata” (2025) with Teater Manu in Oslo and “Sanaton Rakkaus” (Children of a Lesser God) (2019) with Espoon kaupunginteatteri in Helsinki.
Choreography: Jefta van Dinther
Created and performed by: Rita Mazza, Dawn Jani Birley, Lukas Malkowski
Costumes and stage: Cristina Nyffeler
Lighting design: Jonatan Winbo
Sound design: David Kiers
Backdrop surface: Gonçalo Sena
Dramaturgy: Gabriel Smeets
Artistic advice: Maja Zimmermann
Technical direction: Andrea Parolin and Fabian Bleisch
Light: Fabian Bleisch
Sound: Andrea Parolin
Management: Sven Neumann
Distribution: Sarah De Ganck, ART HAPPENS
Production management: Uta Engel and Romy Hansford-Gerber
Financial management: transmissions GmbH (DE) and Interim kultur AB (SE)
Production: Jefta van Dinther
Co-production: Norrlandsoperan Umeå, Cndc – Angers (Accueil Studio), Dansens Hus Stockholm, Dansnät Sverige, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, PACT Zollverein Essen
Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Fonds Darstellende Künste
In 2025 Jefta van Dinther was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Swedish Arts Council
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts
Touring support: Nationales Performance Netz Guest Performance Fund for Dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the state ministries of culture and the arts
Organized by JOINT ADVENTURES – Walter Heun as part of ACCESS TO DANCE 2026