Héla Fattoumi & Éric Lamoureux
Manta

What induces women to hide their bodies and faces from the outside world?  There are few articles of clothing which can spark off quite as much debate as the veil. Dancer and choreographer Héla Fattoumi remembers her childhood Tunis where she played with the veils of her female relatives without ever having to wear one herself. Later in life, Paris became her hometown and she found herself torn between curiosity and conflicting emotions when confronted with so many women choosing to wear the veil. So Héla bought herself a hijab (veil) and set about researching the question from her own particular perspective; both as a choreographer and as a dancer, but also as an Arab woman with a twofold cultural background. Manta came about as a result of what Héla discovered as she observed her surroundings from insidethe veil.

Manta was performed in Gävle, Umeå, Göteborg, Malmö and Stockholm.

Jo Strømgren Kompani
A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football

A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football engages with football as a cultural happening, drawing on empathy, humour and a passion for the aesthetic to depict not just the fervour, the fellowship and yes, the craziness of football, but also the joy and the friendship.  This is a performance for football fans and dance lovers alike whilst at the same time being a political commentary on the remarkable conflict that exists between sport and art – a kick in the ribs to the prejudices which surround both football and dance. A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football sets out to illustrate the common denominators shared by both disciplines – excitement, drama, entertainment value and explosive physical expression.

A Dance Tribute to the art of Football was performed in Kalmar, Vara, Umeå, Linköping, Västerås, Kungsbacka, Jönköping, Göteborg, Falkenberg, Kalix, Luleå, Piteå, Lund, Helsingborg, Borås, Uddevalla and Gävle.

FRIKAR Dance Company
KRUK!

FRIKAR Dance Company’s playful dance with animated rock engravings in their KRUK! performance takes us right to the roots of the “hallingdansen” while simultaneously clarifying the “hallingdansen’s” close links to modern street dance. The Norwegian choreographer Hallgrim Hansegård’s ambition with KRUK! is to reassess the tradition and to challenge the ensemble to reach beyond the traditionally solo nature of the “halling”.

KRUK!  was performed in Västerås, Vara, Kungsbacka and Halmstad.

Steinunn and Brian
Crazy in Love With Mr Perfect

Since ours is a culture imbued with Love, the choreographer duo Steinunn and Brian were completely baffled as to why Happiness didn’t also include them. So they turned their attention to relationships, both factual and fictitious, scrutinizing and dissecting them all. In Crazy in Mr Love with Mr Perfect, a young man and woman are both searching for the perfect man…

Crazy in Love With Mr Perfect was performed in Lund, Malmö, Stockholm, Linköping, Luleå, Umeå and Jönköping.

Stian Danielsen
I Reckon

The Norwegian Stian Danielsen is a young, exciting choreographer and explosive dancer whose dance piece I Reckon has found its way out into Europe. In his solo, Danielsen depicts a man’s meeting with himself.  The performance builds its narrative on short stories which reflect the emotions and physical sensations evoked by this meeting.

I reckon was performed in Lund, Malmö, Stockholm and Linköping.

Urban Connection
On Tour

Five years in a row the top level of hip-hop gathered at Dansen’s Hus international street-dance festival Urban Connection. In autumn 2012 it was time for Urban Connection to fill the rest of the scenes and streets in Sweden.

The Urban Connection Tour included the performance Next Thing, the exhibition Streets of New York as well as workshops, battles and jam. On stage were Twisted Feet with In the Mind of Jean Piere, Anna Näsström with Boxwood, and What Came Out of the Mothership & Public Emily with the work Impedancia. The program on stage was presented by MC:n Aron Phirin. Balhazar Silveria pictures were displayed in lobbies, workshops led by the performing artists were held in dance studios around the country.

The Urban Connection Tour visited Jönköping, Stockholm, Malmö, Luleå, Fagersta,

Alma Söderberg
Cosas

In Cosas Alma Söderberg sings while she talks, talks while she dances and dances while she sings. Cosas analysis the physical aspects of language by peeling away the importance of words and reducing sentences to an absolute minimum.

Cosas was performed in Malmö, Göteborg, Stockholm and Jönköping in a split evening with Mining by Rodrigo Sobarzo

Rodrigo Sobarzo
Mining

In Mining Rodrigo Sobarzo, born in Chile and living in the Netherlands, analysis the body as eternally gliding forward between the boarders of future and past.

Mining was performed in Malmö, Göteborg, Stockholm and Jönköping and shared the evening with Cosas by Alma Söderberg.

Morphoses och Pontus Lidberg
WITHIN (Labyrinth within)

A married couple with relationship problems. The man feels that something is not quite right, is the woman in fact having an affair? The elusive lover and an unforeseeable world soon takes over his life.

With the starting-point from his film Labyrinth Within Swedish Pontus Lidberg has created the performance WITHIN (Labyrinth Within) for the New York company Morphoses. In the performance Pontus Lidberg lets the scene’s fiction glide into the film and by doing so creates a symbolic fusion of the artistic forms and an exciting visual and emotional explosive journey.

Within (Labyrinth Within) performed in Kungsbacka, Göteborg, Västerås, Stockholm and Umeå.

Helena Franzén
I’m Not Looking Back

I’m Not Looking Back meets popular soul-pop with loaded, explosive and very physical dance. The awarded choreographer Helena Franzén invited the singer Jenny Wilson to compose music for a performance involving five female dancers. Together with the producer Daniel Fagge Fagerström, they created a unique soundtrack with the starting-point being Wilson’s record Hardship! from 2009. The theme of the performance is strategic survival instincts and its title is an urge to keep up the spirit and to defy the hardships of (ordinary)life.

I’m Not Looking Back performed in Vara, Luleå, Borås, Västerås,Halmstad and Helsingborg.

Malin Hellkvist Sellén
Rosa Löften

Rosa Löften starts with the examining of body, identity and contemporary dance in relation to dance-band culture and its music. The working process was to act both emotional and analytic to the dance band’s musical texts and contexts. The work’s aesthetic form tries to stage the physical and emotional contact with the room created by of ball room dance and dance band music. Rosa Löften is a romantic valuation exercise about a very popular and living cultural manifestation.

Rosa Löften performed in Umeå, Gävle, Uddevalla, Luleå and Jönköping

Martin Forsberg/RESiDANS
Polskans Historia

Polskans Historia is a dance and folk music performance which penetrates a thick surface of folk dance prejudices. Six people trying to disclose something, which turns out to be something completely different and which in its seriousness becomes very funny!

Sweden’s best folk dancers and folk musicians on stage in a completely and unexpected new version.

Polkans Historia was performed in Vara, Malmö, Karlskrona and Linköping in a split evening with Spår av Anna Öberg.

Anna Öberg
Spår

Anna Öberg is educated at Danshögskolan in Stockholm with focus on Swedish folk dance. She has received great attention both within and outside the traditional folk genre with her new creational approach to folk dance. Cooperation between dance and music runs as a read thread through Anna Öberg’s choreographic work. In her own solo Spår she collaborates with two of Sweden’s young leading folk musicians in direct improvisation with dance.

Spår was performed in Vara, Malmö, Karlskrona and Linköping in a split evening with Polskans Historia.