A collaboration between Simian Kunsthal & Dansehallerne. Presented at Simian Kunsthal.
Thrilling shrills and piercing pipes. Wet strings, distorted sighs. Meety mouths, reverberating hands. Slippery melodies and glitchy glands. Lamenting larynx, longing lungs and sensuous songs.
Magdalena Forster (AT), Deva Schubert w. Chihiro Araki (DE/JP), Luísa Saraiva (PT/DE), Simin Ramezanali (DK/IR/DE), Maji Claire (DK/RW), John T. Gast (UK). Curated by Karis Zidore.
Simian and Dansehallerne present Slippery Melody, an immersive experience at the intersection of choreography, performance and music. The one-day festival invites you to move through sounding dances and spatial compositions within Simian’s distinctive, resonant spaces. The voice, a sanctuary exceeding the individual body, serves as a thematic entry point for the program. In times of global turmoil, the transgression from individual to collective voice is more important than ever: for protesting, lamenting, and gathering.
Slippery Melody introduces a carefully curated program of choreographic works and music performances, including Magdalena Forster’s vocal experiments with salvaged organ pipes, Deva Schubert’s dissonant, bodily choir, and Luísa Saraiva’s haptic interpretations of traditional folk repertoires. Simin Ramezanali weaves vocal textures with theatrical intensity, while multidisciplinary artist and ballroom dancer Maji Claire presents an uncompromising stage performance. The evening concludes with a rare DJ set by the experimental music producer John T. Gast.
When body becomes voice and voice becomes space, it provides a sounding place we can enter together.
Practical information
Saturday, May 9, 2026
Where: Simian Kunsthal, Kay Fiskers Pl. 17, 2300 Kbh /
Doors: 18.00
Program: 19.00 – 01.00
Tickets: 200 DKK Presale via Billetto or in the door
During the evening: Bar and food stand with seasonal servings by Grønt Marked Kitchen
THE PROGRAM
Deva Schubert w. Chihiro Araki (DE/JP), Glitch Choir
Deva Schubert is a Berlin-based choreographer and dancer whose work explores the voice through dance and digital media. Her work has been presented internationally at Haus der Kunst Munich, Kunsthalle, Zürich and Sophiensäle, Berlin. In 2024, Schubert received the ImPulsTanz Young Choreographers’ Award for Glitch Choir, and in 2025, she presented her first solo exhibition, Silent Spills, at Kunstraum Niederösterreich in Vienna.
Chihiro Araki is a Berlin-based multidisciplinary artist. Trained at The Tokyo Ballet School and Rambert School in London, she has performed with Carte Blanche / The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance, Johannes Wieland Company, and artists including Meg Stuart, Helena Waldmann, Sergiu Matis, Jule Flierl and Pan Daijing.
In Glitch Choir, Schubert translates moments of digital disturbance into analogue space through voice and body, recomposing forms of lament. Public mourning was historically performed by so-called “Klageweiber” — women commissioned to express the grief of others while carving out a rare presence in the public sphere.
Drawing on this tradition, the performance unfolds an intimate space of multiresonance, passing from mouth to mouth. Within this temporary community, can grief become a collective glitch? What kind of choir emerges from dissonant frequencies? At Slippery Melody, the piece is presented in a new format, joined by a local choir and performed in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Chihiro Araki.
Magdalena Forster (AT), Echo Body
Magdalena Forster is an artist with a background in choreography and performing arts. Working with material-based and spatial processes, her work has been presented at Tanzquartier Vienna, Impulstanz, Systema Marseille, Kunsthaus Zürich, Neuer Wiener Kunstverein and Lothringer 13 Munich.
In Echo Body, Forster reclaims salvaged organ pipes, removing them from their original liturgical context. Through hydroacoustics, wind and voice, the instruments are reanimated as sonic and corporeal bodies — screeching, wailing and resonating. Movement and sound unfold in a shifting network where breath, gesture and imagination blur. Forster responds to the space, audience and surroundings, as both body and organ pipes activate through evolving encounters. Each iteration invites different musical responses. As part of Slippery Melody, the work features long-time collaborator, composer and transdisciplinary artist Milena Georgieva.
Luísa Saraiva (PT/DE), Claralinda, Claralinda, Claralinda
Luísa Saraiva is a choreographer whose work explores body and voice at the intersection of movement and musical composition. She has conducted extensive research on Portuguese oral heritage, exploring the relationship between tradition, gender and power from a critical perspective.
Claralinda, Claralinda, Claralinda is a choreographic songbook in which Saraiva shares her ongoing research into the physicality of singing, the limits of the female voice and the haptic nature of sound. Moving through different songs and instruments, she explores the sonic interplay of breathing, sounding and singing, exposing the physical labour of breath control through movement. Songs are added, transformed and improvised. The musical universe draws on traditional folk repertoires from central and northern Portugal, resonating through the corridors of Simian for Slippery Melody.
Maji Claire (DK/RW)
Maji Claire is a multidisciplinary showgirl working across music, film and movement. With a background in dance and choreography, she has collaborated with artists such as FKA twigs, Christine and the Queens, Robyn, Jungle and Neneh Cherry, and presented solo works at Statens Museum for Kunst and Les Urbaines. She is a key figure in the Danish ballroom scene, having hosted and creatively directed events at The Royal Danish Theatre, Click Festival, among others. Her work ranges from experimental solo sets to interdisciplinary collaborations. Her musical language blends raw vocals, layered guitars and atmospheric soundscapes. For Slippery Melody, she presents a glimpse of her upcoming album, shaped by her distinctive movement-based aesthetic, alongside guitarist Søren Breum and drummer Tobias Laust.
Simin Ramezanali (DK/IR/DE)
Simin Ramezanali is a drummer, vocalist and visual media artist. They are a member of the experimental doom/art-rock trio SLIM0, the opera roleplaying band spellchestra, and the electronic duo abolish i. Their practice centres on extracting and distorting cultural clichés, weaving together the operatic, tragic and comical. They create narratives of grief, politics and loss, using imitation to unfold multiple voices and rhythmic layers within cinematic soundscapes. During Slippery Melody, Ramezanali unfolds a sonic world that moves between beauty and humour, the unsettling and the loud — suspended between nightmare and dream.
John T. Gast (UK)
John T. Gast’s work spans numerous releases, exploring the visceral physicality of sound and its ability to engulf and subvert. His projects include collaborations with Serafina Steer and Aase Nielsen, Copeland & Gast (with Lolina), and DO U WANT TO MOVE BACK TO LONDON with Solomon Garçon. 4 Body Problem, created with lighting designer Charlie Hope, premiered at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2022. In 2024, he completed a residency in Bristol with Xterea and South African trio Phelimuncasi. Gast has released on labels such as Blackest Ever Black, Planet Mu and Haunter Records, and now focuses on his self-run label, 5 GATE TEMPLE. He has performed internationally, including at C2C, Meakusma, Intonal, Primavera, Dekmantel and Café OTO, and will close Slippery Melody with a rare and captivating DJ set.
