Tao Dance Theatre
6 – The Sami-Chinese Project
6 – The Sami-Chinese Project premiered during the grand opening weekend of Umeå as European Cultural Capital. Musicians and dancers had been working together for two years in residence both in Saxnäs and Beijing. A meeting between tradition and innovation, between a vast natural landscape and a crowded urban metropolis.
Choreographer Tao Ye and his contemporary Chinese dance company TAO Dance Theater has created an evocative, dynamic and multicultural performance together with music jointly composed by Sami musicians and one of China’s leading urban indie-folk musician.
6 – The Sami-Chinese Project was performed in Umeå, Luleå, Piteå, Malmö, Vara and Stockholm.
Gunilla Heilborn
This is not a Love Story
This is not a love story is a story of two reluctant. They talk, dance and never stop asking questions: Who did what? When? Where? And why? Is there any particular period of history that we should concentrate on? Have you ever work in the fishing industry?
A delicate search for context and connections, which always seem to be slightly beyond our reach, the journey becomes not about the destination, but the transformation and reflection along the way. The journey keeps starting over. Again and again as in a road movie dance.
With an existential fundament the choreographer Gunilla Heilborn make the audience both laugh and reflect on the big issues of life or on small specific subjects.
This is not a love story was performed in Jönköping, Malmö, Halmstad and Umeå.
Complete
SIRI
In SIRI the dancers are involuntarily trapped in a virtual world and caught in an abstract universe where humans no longer rule. Imaginatively, surprising and visually they struggle to get out.
The members of Complete have all appeared in major TV productions and tours as the Eurovision Song Contest, Melodifestivalen and Talang but also collaborated with national and international artists, including Eric Saade, Danny Saucedo, Jennifer Lopez and the Black Eyed Peas.
SIRI was performed in Linköping, Karlskrona, Göteborg, Kungsbacka, Falkenberg, Västerås,Vara, Gävle, Säffle and Luleå.
Andersson Dance
Name of the Next Song
Baroque painting and nature as musical scores for choreography – Name of the next song is a creation by Örjan Andersson, created together with four dancers from the U.S.A, Spain and Israel as well as musician and composer BJNilsen who created electronic music with nature as a starting point.
Swedish choreographer Örjan Andersson explores notions of time, space and movement through a unique style of perception, musicality and construction. From smaller and larger works for his own company, Andersson Dance and invitations to other companies, his versatile craft as a dancemaker has given him an indisputable position as one of Northern Europe’s most interesting choreographers.
Name of the next song was performed in Malmö, Gävle Umeå and Jönköping.
Cie Par Terre
Autarcie(…)
Like a facade of bodies, four women take a firm stance in the front of the stage. The sequence of movements they are performing synthesizes moves that are peculiar to each of them, breakdancers and poppers. This prototypical dance, homogeneous at the start, is interrupted by important digressions which thrust the dancers into unconstrained space.
The French title Autarcie is translated to sufficiency and is a term used to refer to communities, groups who choose to live self-sufficient, like the four dancers (or the four points in the title?).
Autarice (…) was performed Västerås, Växjö, Jönköping, Malmö and Umeå.
Bastard Produktion
Skippin’ Through the Graveyard
Skippin’ through the graveyard gives the audience a Country Western Musical in “a waiting room with Christian overtones.” With a free-church obsession the artists questioning their mortality by challenging each other and gravitation in hopes of escaping the fires of Hell. It becomes an exploration with humor where the songs tell of another world where the weary soul finally will find peace.
Skippin’ through the graveyard was performed in Linköping, Göteborg, Uddevalla, Borås and Kalmar.
Alessandro Sciarroni
Joseph
Promising revelation, Alessandro Sciarroni is an upcoming artist that, in neither a gratuitous nor weird manner, uses the simple installed technology of his computer to record and return behind him on the big screen, his image multiplied, symmetrical, flipped, reciprocal, or through deformed details, revealing us its totally unusual, expressive (and compositional) possibilities.
He, solitary performer of himself and his fantasies, does not lack irony when applied to most banal and private situations such those of a world of an erotic chat. Very funny and able to generate expectancy for the next performance after this Joseph, a kind of alter ego that gives the title to the show
Joseph was performed in Västerås, Jönköping, Umeå, Stockholm, Kungsbacka, Visby, Halmstad, Uddevalla, Borås and Kalmar.
Ludvig Daae
MM
In MM, Ludvig Daae does a virtual duet with himself. We are invited to see how Ludvig is negotiating with and relating to himself on film in an artistic process where he is both the creator and the performer. MM plays with how the choreographer is present during the performance and an objectification of the dancer on stage. As MM progresses, new layers appear. The film gets its own role as the language of the film shows a display of things that are impossible to recreate live on stage.
MM was performed in Västerås, Jönköping, Umeå, Stockholm, Kungsbacka, Visby, Halmstad, Piteå, Uddevalla, Borås and Kalmar.
Virpi Pahkinen
Scarabé
The transformative symbol of the dung-rolling beetle is the mind’s vehicle in Virpi Pahkinen’s work Scarabé. In Omega Point theory, which describes the universe as evolving towards ever-higher material complexity and consciousness, the question arises: How can our bodies, with their old design, reflect this new era of complexity?
Virpi Pahkinen has been successfully touring the world in her dual role as choreographer and solo dancer. Pahkinen’s performances has met critical acclaim in over 45 countries including USA, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and Lebanon.
Scarabé was performed in Växjö, Gävle, Göteborg, Umeå and Karlstad.
Iris Karayan
Mothers
Mothers tell(s) stories of construction: two women are playing with space, inventing the work through minimal structures of action. Using elementary material, lego- like bricks transformed into protocols of movement, they design their own cities setting in motion. Strolling around, inventing new codes of action, Mothers are playing with the limits of their own designs.
Resident in Athens with economic, cultural and political turmoil Iris Karayan experiences extreme conditions and behaviours. The experience of this raises existential questions about the human condition and create a desire for change and development.
Mothers was performed in Malmö, Jönköping, Linköping and Falkenberg.
Jeanette Langert
Våroffer
Performed to Igor Stravinsky’s music by Dan Langeborg of GöteborgOperans Danskompani, Jeanette Langert’s critically acclaimed version of The Rite of Spring is a stylistic and intimate interpretation of the classical piece. Slowly building up a momentum in her characteristic choreography, the dancer is as one with the groundbreaking orchestral piece.
Jeanette Langert has been acknowledged as one of Sweden’s most intriguing choreographers. Celebrated for her cohesive dance works, she develops the art of dancing above all through refusing to compromise. Her minimalist approach both moves and startles her audience while the press has praised her unique, stylistically strong style.
Våroffer was performed in Vara, Malmö, Piteå, Gävle, Kungsbacka, Skövde and Jönköping.
Kyle Abraham/Abraham in Motion
Pavement
“In 1991, I was fourteen and entering the ninth grade at Schenley High School in the historic Hill District of Pittsburgh. That same year, John Singleton’s film, Boyz N The Hood was released. For me, the film depicted an idealized “Gangsta Boheme” laying aim to the state of the Black American male at the end of the 20th century. Twenty years later and more than ten years into the 21st century, I am focused on investigating the state of Black America and a history therein.”
– Kyle Abraham
The performance Pavement aims to create a strong emotional chronology of a culture conflicted with a history plagued by discrimination, genocide, and a constant quest for a lottery ticket weighted in freedom.
Pavement was performed in Vara, Stockholm, Göteborg, Kungsbacka and Falkenberg.
Navardias & Deutinger
Your Majesties
In Your Majesties, Navaridas & Deutinger present President Barack Obamas Nobel Lecture, held at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo. The performer Alex Deutinger recites the legendary speech of the President of the United States of America. From behind the audience, Marta Navaridas performs as a gesturing teleprompter, manipulating and guiding his movements. The The President´s speech is revived, a piece of World History is updated and the techniques of political rhetoric are laid bare in a surprisingly clear and simple way.
A fascinating and subtle lecture performance about war, peace, and hope.
Your Majesties was performed in Jönköping, Malmö, Stockholm, Kungsbacka and Lund.