Reich + Szyber
Unknown Pleasures
Unknown Pleasure is the third and final part of Carina Reich’ and Bogdan Szyber’s Melancholic Cycle. Infectious humour shared with deep melancholy are communicated in this warm and public performance. Unknown Pleasure takes place in a deserted pleasure park where some strange figures are looking for identity, continuity and love. They try to handle their human failures at the same time as they try to convey their lives’ passions.
Carina Reich and Bogdan Szyber have since 1983 worked with hybrid forms within scene- and visual arts. They have worked in majority of contexts and the list of performances, site specifics and scenic work is long.
Unknown Pleasure was performed in Umeå, Gävle, Malmö, Helsingborg, Jönköping, Varberg, Karlskrona, Linköping and Västerås.
Björn Säfsten
Compact Conversations
Compact Conversation is Björn Säfsten sixth piece created with the same group of artists which he has been working together with since 2006. In a short time Säfsten has with his specific tone left a distinct choreographic impression on the Swedish dance scenes.
In a processed-based creation Björn Säfsten, together with his artistic partners, explored different methods which are combined and weaved together. Questions and starting-points are tossed and turned. Speculations concerning the dance language are recurrent, how connotations are shifted and changed owing to the context and the relation between subject and object. With Compact Conversation the starting-point was the mechanism of movements in a home environment, to see what happens when they meets with other methods and impulses. On stage the dancers’ bodies and movements converse with video projections and electronic music, possibly to cause a third language and new readings.
Compact Conversation was performed in Linköping, Umeå, Halmstad and Jönköping.
Hamid Ben Mahi
Faut qu’on parle (we need to talk)
Fout qu’on parle! is a hip-hop performance with strong focus on story-telling. Hamid Ben Mahi is one of the pioneers of the French hip-hop scene and has lifted this dance-style to a high artistic level.
Hamid Ben Mahi started to dance during the hip-hop culture’s big breakthrough in the beginning of the 80s. He is educated at several schools in France which broadened his knowledge of different dance-styles. At the end of the 90s he continued to Alvin Ailey School in New York where he met pioneers of the American hip-hop dance scene. As a dancer Hamid worked together with several famous French street-dance choreographers. He started his own company Hors Série in 2000, where he has created both solo numbers and group numbers. His work focus on the dancer’s identity and background and to develop the scenic dance.
Faut qu’on parle! Is part of a series performances where Hamid, who has his roots in Algeria, deals with his own problems experienced with alienation, xenophobia and immigration politics in France. It is a topical, catching and an important story told by an extremely skilful dancer who’s wishes to influence his own life and others.
Faut qu’on parle was performed in Västerås, Jönköping, Göteborg, Falkenberg, Borås, Uddevalla, Malmö and Lund.
Karttunen kollektiv
Days of Disco
The Finnish group Karttunen Kollektiv gives us flashbacks to the golden age of the disco era with the performance Days of Disco. The choreographer Jurkki Karttunen was fascinated with disco as a phenomenon in his early years –ex punks, as well as political activists seem all to have very personal relations to the disco era – we can all hum ABBAs Dancing Queen. Karttunen has included very personal and unique memories despite glitter and glamour.
The choreograph Jyri Karttunen started his carrier as a dancer, but has since the 90s been more focused on choreography. His work with contemporary dance has internationally become some of Finland’s most sought-after performances. Karttunen’s artistic work is characterized by his interest in mankind, often in contrast with existentialistic theme and with mild irony and a warm sense of humour.
Days of Disco was performed in Västerås, Växjö, Kungsbacka, Jönköping, Linköping and Gävle
Liquid Loft
Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction
Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction was created for La Biennale di Venezia 2007 under the motto “Body and Eros” – and received award for best performance. The seductive play between humans was caught with humour and irony; how one with the help of poses, glances and other commonplace movements try to impress. The choreographer Chris Haring has created a performance by using sex and fashion as a stylistic guideline in our present time’s predilection to expose bodies. A creation that moves between the borderland of dance and performance with speech, music and smart sound effects.
Liquid Loft’s metaphor-loaded and stylistic expression, combined with characteristic acoustic stage-building and dance skills has made great success internationally.
Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction was performed in Göteborg, Umeå, Malmö and Stockholm
Vindhäxor
Om en viskning
Vindhäxor and the choreographer Eva Lundqvist have lighten up the Swedish dance-scene in more than a quarter of a century. Assiduously exploring and developing the essence of movements together with smart calibrated dancers. Quite a unique dance language where nature’s form often appears in organic forms whirling, flowing and returning in an almost ritual way.
The tittle Om en viskning allude to the Mongolian custom to whisper a poem and send this in a carved box to the beloved – Can you hear the unsaid? The devoted whispered words?
Om en viskning was performed in Piteå, Västerås, Uddevalla and Vara.
Kirstine Ilum
PAUSE
Kirstine Ilum is renowned for being one of Denmark’s freshest and rawest choreographer. A choreographer who often uses hazardous and extremely physical elements: parkour and stunts in flashlight tempos. PAUSE is filled with dynamic variations – from action filled acrobatic power-dance on the walls to tender emotional embraces in slow motion.
Using dance as a language, with all its humour and seriousness, the chorographer creates a visual interpretation of time. The three dancers try to decipher the role of the modern person in time and place. Are we in such a hurry that we risk being late to life itself? By turning the concept of time upside down PAUSE wants us to stop, reflect and for a short period put our ambitions on stand-by. PAUSE is Ilum’s first major creation.
PAUSE was performed in Helsingborg, Lund, Varberg, Karlskrona and Västervik
Helena Franzén
Trigger Point
With personal stringency in movements and a sensitivity for details makes Trigger Point one of Helena Franzéns’ deep-diving choreographies. This is where her prominent points as a choreographer is reflected and her work focus on movements, music and sound. Trigger Point focus on the idea of cause and effect; movements are tested and given new aspects in new paths, versions and repetitions. Altered starting points lead to unforeseen paths. A fascinating journey where every well-balanced part is present and colours the work into a strange landscape.
Helena Franzén has been for a number of years part of the top level of Swedish contemporary dance and has a long list of qualifications both as a dancer and a choreographer.
Trigger Point was performed in Umeå, Halmstad, Kalmar, Gävle, Jönköping, Västerås, Malmö and Linköping