Direction: Iveta Ditte Jurčová
Choreography: Tom Rychetský, Denisa Musilová
Dramaturgy: Marek Godovič
Performers: Ela Lehotská, Denisa Musilová, Tom Rychetský, Filip Jekkel
Original score: Ivan Acher
Sound design: Milan Slama, Lukáš Kubičina
Libreto: Michal Ditte, Iveta Ditte Jurčová
Set design: Iveta Ditte Jurčová, Katarína Caková
Lighting design: Michal Ditte
Swing Heil! is a fusion of drama, dance, object and physical theater. A project co-produced by the Pôtoň Theater in Slovakia and the Horácký Theater Jihlava in the Czech Republic, this piece centers on the subculture of jazz and swing enthusiasts who opposed the Nazi regime during the Second World War. To raise one’s right hand and shout “Swing Heil!” instead of the obligatory salute was to publicly declare oneself a dissident and opponent of the genocide.
The directors of this piece worked with fragments of two remarkable true stories from the period. The first is the story of the dancer, choreographer, and artist Nina Jirsíková, who was perhaps the only Czech woman to be deported to the Ravensbrück concentration camp for a ballet production. The second story is that of Anna Goldsteiner, a mother of four from the small town of Pulkau in Lower Austria, who was beheaded for the crime of allowing the local youth—fans of jazz and swing—to meet in her apartment.
