The temple above the Oracle of Delphi bears the inscription "Gnothi seauton" – "Become who you are. Know thyself." These are radical thoughts. Joan of Arc – she was 19 years old when she died – lived them. She trusted and followed her inner voices that told her who she is, what she can do, where her path leads her. She foresaw the future. She led soldiers to victory, won a throne for a king, her country was united. When she stood trial two years later as a political prisoner, she refused a lawyer and spoke for herself. Death was preferable to her than a life in prison, separated from her voices.

The figure has fascinated me for a long time. However, it was only the music that inspired me to approach this brave person. I searched for choral and percussion pieces for a long time. There are two sound worlds: thoughts about the future and the power of the inner voice provoke Beat Furrer's "Enigma I-IV and VI," which are based on Leonardo da Vinci's "Prophecies." I saw utopian images in the melodies of Gene Koshinsky's "Song & Dance." I wanted to counter this idyl with a choreographic machine in order to question it. I simply admire Steve Reich's "Clapping Music": through the "simple" rhythmic displacement of sounds, he creates a dense sound.

I am trying to approach the energy, spirit, and legacy of Jeanne D'Arc in this interdisciplinary dance evening and to capture these core themes in motion. The evening relies on reduction. The focus is on movement, sound, light, and play. No historical costumes, no swords or crowns – and the title character will not be burned. For the first time in Münster, I am partly working with pointe shoes. They convey vulnerability, superhuman proportions, and divine virtuosity. Voices, courage, future are the driving forces that inspire the choreography: Who trusts their inner voices and puts them into action? How do individuals stand against external forces like algorithms that regulate our present? Is courage a matter of the mind? Dance can give shape to these enigmatic forces. The drums are the engine that provides strength, plays the partner, antagonist in the crashing climax.

He stands for Jeanne's voices and acts like a moving architecture. Sometimes they are her inner voices, sometimes the external voices directed against her, sometimes the commenting, criticizing choir. In contrast to the acapella singing, the drums mercilessly drive Jeanne forward.

The first part of the evening follows Jeanne D'Arc's story until her death. After that, the dance enters a future where people move as if they were a computer program. The last section of the piece takes place in a bleached world: Two people manage, like Jeanne, to raise their voices above the crowd: This "algorithm choreography" is an attempt to imagine an oracle in an inorganic world.

Be fearless. A life can change the world. Or, see the inscription of the Oracle of Delphi...