Mortal Heroes

ZfinMalta National Dance Company/ Sita Ostheimer (Malta/ Germany)

22.07 | 21:30 | “Mikis Theodorakis” theatre

Sita Ostheimer graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt, Germany in 2001, and went on to work with renowned companies such as Galili Dance and Krisztina de Chatel. In 2007 she joined the Hofesh Shechter Company in London where she worked as a dancer, workshop leader, and choreographic assistant until 2018, re-staging works for major companies such as NDT I and the Paris Opera Ballet, among others. In 2015, Sita Ostheimer founded the Sita Ostheimer Company, a platform through which she collaborates with a growing group of international artists, including British lighting designer and technical director Barnaby Booth and French music composer Adrien Casalis. The strong physicality of her creations generates a deep connection with each performer’s mental state and emotional inner world.

Sita Ostheimer’s creations have been presented internationally in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Austria, Israel, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Italy, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, and South America. She has also created numerous commissioned works for international dance companies, including Mortal Heroes with ŻfinMalta 2025, Hasard & Bolero MirDance Company Gelsenkirchen 2024, Last Man Standing with Xie Xin Dance Theatre Shanghai 2023, and Sleeping Beauty with Staatstheater Kassel 2023, among others.

In Mortal Heroes, Sita Ostheimer invites us into a visceral exploration of human potential— an odyssey through chaos and love, shadow and light, fragility and force. Her choreography becomes a poetic search for the ‘Other,’ a love letter to resilience, to the human capacity for survival, renewal, and transformation. Crafted with her signature language of movement, layered with evocative music by Adrien Casalis and immersive lighting by Barnaby Booth, Ostheimer’s work creates an atmosphere both intimate and vast.

A charged, pulsating space emerges—tense yet alive—suspending the audience in a state of continuous anticipation. It is here, in this emotionally electrified realm, that the body, mind, and spirit are pushed to their outer limits. Through dynamic and deeply human encounters, Mortal Heroes unfolds as an emotional collision: delicate yet explosive, aggressive yet tender. Viewers are not passive observers—they are drawn into the work’s rhythm, evolving alongside the dancers, touching something raw and essential within themselves.

In Ostheimer’s process, transformation is perpetual. Beginnings and endings blur, giving way to a ceaseless cycle of becoming—an ever-renewing space where the heroic lies not in perfection, but in vulnerability, courage, and the will to continue.

Choreography: Sita Ostheimer
Composer: Adrien Casalis
Light Designer: Barnaby Booth
Costume Designer: Holly Knowles
Rehearsal Assistant: Elena Martello
Production Coordinator: Tillmann Becker
Dancers: Andrea Biagioni, Martí Blanco Romeu, Pearl Calleja, Lidia Caricasole, Lotte La Haye, Mario Manara, Alessandro Pellegrinelli, Elisa Ruffato, Amber Van Veen, Simon Riccardi-Zani

22 July | 21:30 | “Mikis Theodorakis” theatre

ZfinMalta National Dance Company/ Sita Ostheimer – Mortal Heroes

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