Open Lab – on tour presents new short works and works in progress. Audiences can look forward to a total of four short performances created by four talented choreographers based in Denmark. The works are personal, sometimes raw, sometimes humorous and explore everything from indecision to self-love; the importance of remembering; the value of letting go. After the evening’s works, we offer (a glass and) a conversation with the four choreographers and dancers, so that both audience and choreographers leave Open Lab – on tour with new inspiration and new perspectives.
The evening’s program consists of:
Mémoires Perdues / Lost Memories by Julienne Doko (FR/DK) / 8 min
A story of oppositions by Keren-or Ben Shachar (IL) / 16 min
X Gone Wild by Andreas Haglund (SE) / 15 min
Welcum to my Wedding by Peter Scherrebeck (DK) / 20 min
The performances are selected by Aaben Dans, Bora Bora, Dansehallerne and Momentum. Open Lab – on tour is produced and presented in a collaboration between the four houses as part of the development of a new national network for dance and choreography supported by the Bikuben Foundation.
MÉMOIRES PERDUES / Lost Memories by Julienne Doko (FR/DK)
For us the choice is made, we are amongst those who refuse to forget. Aimé Césaire
Mémoires Perdues questions the notions of collective memory and progress: Do we really learn from the lessons of the past? The piece is an emotional response to this seemingly endless repetition of pain. It is a cry for the urgency of memory for our future. The piece establishes a dialogue between past and future, movement and spoken word. The choreographic vocabulary of the piece is African-contemporary drawing from Afro-Brazilian symbolism.
About the artist: Julienne Doko is a Copenhagen-based French dance performer, teacher and choreographer. Her movement and dramaturgical line take inspiration from her homelands and the journeys she has taken in between. Julienne Doko has performed internationally in various companies, festivals, TV shows and musicals.
A story of oppositions by Keren-or Ben Shachar (IL)
’A story of oppositions’ is a 17-minutes dance solo created and performed by Keren-or Ben Shachar. The solo portrays a female character constantly shifting between two poles of decisions, between the doubts fueled by fears and the desires and dreams to move on. Indecisiveness is a strange feeling, it is staying in between possibilities, in a limbo of oppositions. The inspiration to create this solo came from an interest in how people make decisions, what drives us to make a decision and what prevents us from moving on.
About the artist: Keren Ben Shachar (IL) is a contemporary dancer and choreographer based in Copenhagen. In her choreographic works, Keren touches relatable themes that brings human experiences to the front through dance, theatricality, and a sense of humor. She is a graduate of ArtEZ Academy (NL) and has collaborated on various projects as a dancer and choreographer within the fields of dance, visual arts and film, including co-founding Lazy Susan & co. dance company in Rotterdam (NL).
X Gone Wild af Andreas Haglund (SE)
X Gone Wild is a tribute to those who lose themselves in dance and find themselves in the wild. Again and again and again. Drawing inspiration from Jack Halberstam’s work on a queer longing for wilderness, the piece explores how this wilderness manifests in a dancing body. When does dancing become wild? What emerges when the dust from a wild night settles?
About the artist: Andreas Haglund works as a dancer, performer, choreographer and dance maker in and around Denmark and Sweden. Their works explore the intersection of queer and environmental discourse, aesthetics and practice. They are a member of Dance Cooperative, a self-organised studio and collegial context for 14 performing artists. Sometimes they write little poems to hide in the city.
Welcum to my Wedding af Peter Scherrebeck / Misty Superdeluxe
On stage, a hybrid maiden chooses to marry herself in a “sologamist” wedding ritual. Accompanied by a ghost. The figure on stage morphs from act to act, through singing, dancing and sounding, appearing and disappearing in a sonic choreography of evoking and becoming. The work wishes to reclaim the figure of the bride in a queer and humorous ritual of self-love.
About the artist: Peter Scherrebeck, also known as Misty Superdeluxe, is a choreographer based in Denmark and the Netherlands. Working from a queer feminist perspective Peter has studied sonic somatics, clairvoyant practices and dance that happens in between the contours of things. Peter holds a BA in choreography from SNDO, Amsterdam University of the Arts.
