ZINADA
“Nami“

World premiere
August 6 & 7, 2026
20.30 h
Schwere Reiter

Tickets August 6, 2026Tickets August 7, 2026

25 EUR / 18 EUR reduced

Barrier-free

Support: “Nami” is funded by the Department of Culture of the City of Munich and by the Performing Arts Fund with support from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. With the kind support of Tanztendenz München e.V. and the Rat & Tat Cultural Office.
World premiere as part of TANZWERKSTATT EUROPA 2026

On stage: Kyung Mee Lee and Jin Lee, mother and daughter. A family, memories, shared pasts, common paths, and the same pain. Neither of them ever experienced a mother’s love. Both spent their lives searching for that warmth, that feeling of unconditional affection, of being protected and embraced. In Nami, mother and daughter come together in a shared desire for change. How can we find the warmth of our mothers that we never experienced? Can we make up for this deficiency together?

When Jin Lee’s grandmother was ten years old, the Korean War ended. It left behind millions of dead, a divided, devastated country, and a population whose traumas were kept private and silenced. The grandmother never spoke of her physical and emotional pain, never processed it; she gave birth to her children and later abused her own daughter. The scars of this abuse carved deep marks into Jin Lee’s mother that never fully healed, inevitably influencing her relationship with her own daughter. Pain begat more pain, passing from one generation to the next.

Understanding this cycle, uncovering the social roots of the pain, and bringing the trauma out of the private sphere helped mother and daughter not only to reframe the grandmother’s story but also their own distant relationship. 

In Nami, both share their search for healing, for forgiveness, for listening and understanding. In an era of dwindling social solidarity and growing global isolation, they ask for cohesion, empathy, and the significance of small gestures of tenderness.

In 2022, South Korean artists Jin Lee and Jihun Choi founded the performance collective ZINADA. In their works, they explore themes such as migration, adolescence, dissonance, and inherited grief, which unfold in poetic and physical forms. The physical intensity and emotional resonance of the performances transport the audience into an atmosphere of empathy, where abstraction allows images and personal memories to surface.
ZINADA continually explores the intersections between dance performance and other genres and strives to appeal to audiences of all ages. Their approaches are as wide-ranging and diverse as the resulting performances. The contrasting backgrounds and personalities of Lee and Choi form a creative force that gives each piece a distinctive and unexpected form.

Her debut production, HUABUN, had a successful premiere in Munich in 2023. Their second production, MUJE/무제, was presented in January 2025 at the HochX Theater & Live Art with three sold-out performances. In 2024/25, ZINADA was invited by explore dance to create the pop-up performance “WUW – Wind und Wand” for young audiences ages 10 and up. All productions are currently on international tour, including stops in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, South Korea, and Slovenia. On August 6 and 7, 2026, the new work Nami will premiere as part of the Tanzwerkstatt Europa, supported by the Munich Department of Culture and the Performing Arts Fund.

Artistic Direction, Choreography: ZINADA (Jin Lee & Jihun Choi)
Dance, Performance: Jin Lee, Kyung Mee Lee
Dramaturgy: Nitsan Margaliot
Lighting Design: Ramona Lehnert
Costume Design: Carla Renée Loose
Composition/Music: Benny Omerzell, Shin Hye Jung
Artistic Production: Laura Manz
Filmography: Alpay Akcan, Mikael Champs
Video Documentation: Tim Bergmann
Physical Introduction: Susanne E. Schneider
Press/Public Relations: Simone Lutz
Photography: Christina Gerg