Through the interplay of striking choreography, outstanding performance quality and poetically integrated audio description and surtitles, Rykena/Jüngst’s ‘Stripping Bolero’ gives the impression that one is witnessing an entirely new genre of performing arts.” 

–– Peter Sampel, tanznetz.de, 27.01.2026 

Maurice Ravel’s world-famous “Boléro” is a musical composition that builds to a sustained crescendo and ends in pure ecstasy. This captivating orchestral classic inspired the choreographic duo Rykena/Jüngst from Hamburg and Munich to develop sensual and choreographic highlights in their new piece, whilst simultaneously questioning them: on stage, the performers Emil Leske, Raymond Liew Jin Pin and Lisa Rykena play with intensification, deceleration and seduction. The climax is broken up and rearranged using fragments from familiar dramas, the history of dance and the art of striptease. Dance, sign language and sign language poetry, audio description and erotic storytelling create a world on stage that lies somewhere between grand tragedies and tender intimacy. This multi-sensory performance uses delay and eroticism to create an aesthetic of access and invitation: the theatre space becomes more intense, tension is sustained then released, climaxes shift, bodies tumble to the floor or tell stories in reverse. A style-defining work performed in hypnotic proximity to the audience. And because, in classical theatre, the climax comes in the middle, STRIPPING BOLERO – if I may be so bold as to give you a little teaser – ends with a climax that is entirely its own and full of surprises.

TEAM

Artistic Direction Carolin Jüngst & Lisa Rykena 

Performance and Co-creation Emil Leske, Raymond Liew Jin Pin, Lisa Rykena 

Dramaturgy for blind and visually impaired audiences Manuela Schemm, Pernille Sonne 

Dramaturgy for deaf audiences Eyk Kauly, Susanne Tod 

Outside Eye Matthias Quabbe 

Sound design, music, co-creation of audio description, voice Raphaela Andrade Cordova 

Sound research & sound collaboration Carl Hoffmann

Set design Lea Kissing 

Costume design Catharina Holtgrave 

Lighting design Ricarda Schnoor (Hamburg) 

Surtitling & Accessibility Assistant Pauline Michel 

Artistic Production Management Rat & Tat Kulturbüro 

Press and Public Relations, Audience Development Hark Empen 

PR Photography Julian Baumann

Foto© Jonas Fischer   

Carolin Jüngst & Lisa Rykena

Artistic direction, choreography, dance (Munich/Hamburg) – they have been working as an artistic duo between Hamburg and Munich since 2016. In their dance productions, they roam through strip clubs, 1920s variety theatres, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and queer comic conventions, bringing together mermaids, She-Hulks, expressive arias, velvety stages and marble down jackets. Their work explores queer-feminist, intersectional and ableism-critical discourses on the body, and the transformation of normative categorisations of bodies. Since the beginning of their collaboration, they have experimented extensively with the relationship between body and voice and the ways in which they can comment on and question one another. Rykena/Jüngst’s working method is characterised by a reinterpretation of virtuosity, the imagination and manifestation of diverse bodies, and the affirmation of expressive and humorous bodies.

The play contains scenes of nudity and deals with sensitive topics such as death and dying; a quiet room and alternative seating options are also available.