Technosomatics Workshops
Technosomatics is a unique dance practice that delves into the connection between club dancing to techno music and the body's chakras and endocrine glands. Developed and shared globally by Frédéric Gies since 2014, this practice offers a transformative experience. At Maison de la Danse, we provide free workshops for everyone and all dancing skill levels. You can register for a single session or multiple sessions for a deeper, collective exploration of your dancing body. Each session will be dedicated to a specific focus and theme.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Age Restriction: Adults (from 16 yo)
Language: English
Note: the workshop includes loud music
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
SCHEDULE SPRING 2025
Original Photo: José Esteves Martins
Monday, 10 February 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 17 February 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 24 February 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 03 March 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 10 March 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 17 March 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 24 March 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 31 March 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Saturday, 12 April 2025 | Technosomatics intensive*
14.00-18.00 - Festsalen at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö.
*Included in Maison Ouverte #5.
Sunday, 13 April 2025 | Technosomatics intensive*
13.00-17.30 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
*Included in Maison Ouverte #5.
Monday, 26 May 2025
19.00-21.15 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Please let us know if you need to cancel or if there is a day you can't make it via danceisancient@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.ABOUT TECHNOSOMATICS
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. The practice is toured internationally and taught in various dance MA and MBA programs. Frédéric also animate regular free practices for all levels in Malmö in the frame of la Maison de la Danse.
Technosomatics consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centers) through club dancing to techno music as wells as the opposite: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions.
Drawing by Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies has teached the practice internationally to both professional dancers and the general audience. The practice has been shared in several dance BA and MA programmes as well as at diverse public manifestations such as Impulstanz (Vienna), Tanzkongress (Dresden), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw), Art stations – Stary Browar (Poznan), Ponderosa (Germany), Weld (Stockholm), HZT (Berlin), Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Skogen (Gothenburg) etc. and has met its audience internationally.
ACCESSIBILITY
MAISON OUVERTE #5
TECHNOSOMATICS INTENSIVE & TRIBUTE – SOLO VERSION
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Booking will be made available on our booking page as the program unfolds.
PROGRAMME – DAY 1
At Festsalen, Ungdomens hus
14.00 – 18.00 · Technosomatics Intensive – Day 1 (workshop with Frédéric Gies)
In this intensive workshop, we will address the relationship between the midline and the periphery of our bodies. By means of club dancing to techno with eyes closed as well as through specific movement and breathing exercises, we will explore the relationship between our endocrine glands and other tissues, which have an endocrine function as well. We will witness the various states of consciousness that will emerge and how they infuse our dance and the dance floor.
18.00 – 19.00 · Mingle + Buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer.
19.00 – 20.15 · Tribute – Solo Version (performance by Frédéric Gies)
To a spellbinding techno set by Fiedel, this performance by Frédéric Gies is a tribute to the dance floor and to many dancers, dead and alive. A solo version of a group piece commissioned by and created for Weld Company in 2018. A dance like there is no tomorrow.
Tribute was originally created in 2018 for Weld Company and a crew of 9 dancers of different generations. In 2020, as the piece was touring internationally, a gig at the festival Moving in November in Helsinki had to be cancelled, due to the pandemic and local quarantine rules. Nevertheless, the festival happened in a reduced version and Kertsin Schroht, the artistic director of the festival discussed the possibility of making a solo version of the piece together with Frédéric Gies. This is how the solo version of the piece was created, in November 2020. So far, it has been presented only at that occasion, so this is the first time it is presented again.
About Tribute:
“A ravishing cast of techno sylhides raves in formation, in an ecstatic and delicate homage to Dominique Bagouet; think Berghain cancan with extreme somatic smarts, and bass resonating all the way to your ribcage.” Claire Levèvre (Springback magazine, 2021)
“As I started to imagine what could be the dance piece I would make for a dance company that is “aiming to rediscover and revaluate the old institution of Dance Company”, personal memories of dances I witnessed came flooding back. Each of them is closely tied to a dancer whom I saw in the darkness of the dance floor or from my seat at the theatre. These memories, more than mere images, reappear as an imprint in my body. They are also constitutive of my dances. They are my library. Many dancers dance in a dancer’s body and a dance is always the product of other dances as well as a call for dances to come. For Tribute, I’ll open my library to the dancers of Weld Company, to make dances that summon up the poetic, delicate and raw textures of past dances, utterly present as the promise of dances to come.” Frédéric Gies (2018)
20.30 – 21.15 · Artist talk
Conversation with Frédéric Gies.
Doors close at 21.30
PROGRAMME – DAY 2
At Teater Barbro, Ungdomens hus
13.00 – 17.30 · Technosomatics Intensive – Day 2 (workshop with Frédéric Gies)
This workshop will be a continuation of Day 1 workshop. It will include a two hour dance dive in the dark.
ACCESSIBILITY
Dance is Ancient | MARC
Dance is Ancient
Dance is Ancient is a durational performance that is a club night and a club night that is a performance. To the infectious beats of a techno set by Fiedel, Frédéric Gies inhabits the dance floor as a faun-like, panic figure. They act as a catalyst for the audience’s dance and trance. Eliciting and unleashing the fathomless and primal forces that traverse the depths of dancing bodies, Frédéric Gies also delivers a whole history of dance, summoning up ghosts of dancers and choreographers, from Nijinsky to Isadora Duncan and Dominique Bagouet. They collapse the differences and hierarchies between ballet, contemporary dance, club dance and folk dance. Addressing all together the bodily, perceptual, sensual, emotional, social and spiritual dimensions of the experience of dancing, Dance is ancient brings to the forefront the magic of the dance floor. Created in 2016, Dance is ancient has toured internationally. It has been presented in different contexts, from electronic music festivals to contemporary art museums, clubs, dance venues and festivals. The performance also gave its name to the organisation through which Frédéric Gies carries out their projects.
CREDITS
Dance: Frédéric Gies
DJ: Fiedel
Sculpture: Anton Stoianov
Funded by the Swedish Arts Council, coproduced by Weld and Skogen, with the support of Röda Sten.
Date & Time: Saturday 26 April 2025, 19.00–00.00
Place: Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC), Parkgatan 7, Knisslinge, Sverige
Part of MARC HOUSEWARMING PARTY
No pre-registration is required. The event is cost free / donation-based (pay what you can upon arrival).
Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC)
MARC is a hub for creation and exchange that actively fosters a dialogue between theory and practice, creativity and knowledge, and artists and communities through investigation in the field of performance. By pairing artists with mentors, colleagues, and the public, we aim to address the need for a platform where critical discourse is encouraged and cultivated. Our yearly programming includes workshops, sharing sessions, flag raisings, exhibitions, public interventions, dialogues, filmmaking, and performances. We strive to support our artists, partners, and network long-term, deepening our practice and engagement as an artist-driven organization to create sustainable pathways for independent and self-producing artists, artistic experimentation, and the community at large. Read more
Flip Side: Visualizing the Woman I Want to Become in the Mirror | MARC
Flip Side: Visualizing the Woman I Want to Become in the Mirror
At the origin of this solo is a meme, which I randomly gleaned on social media and which became a recurring message in my online communication with Rachel, as a humorous way to channel our anger in the face of situations that upset us. The meme, which gives the title to this solo, depicts a feminine looking, barbie-like doll, looking at herself in the mirror but it is the face of the terrifying queen of the Alien franchise that appears as her reflection. This solo embraces the stigma of the mad, angry woman trope, turning it around with bravura, poetic precision and rigorous composition in the shape of an operatic choreography.
CREDITS
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dance: Rachel Tess
Date & Time: Sunday 27 April 2025, 16.00–17.00
Place: Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC), Parkgatan 7, Knisslinge, Sverige
Part of MARC HOUSEWARMING PARTY
No pre-registration is required. The event is cost free / donation-based (pay what you can upon arrival).
Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC)
MARC is a hub for creation and exchange that actively fosters a dialogue between theory and practice, creativity and knowledge, and artists and communities through investigation in the field of performance. By pairing artists with mentors, colleagues, and the public, we aim to address the need for a platform where critical discourse is encouraged and cultivated. Our yearly programming includes workshops, sharing sessions, flag raisings, exhibitions, public interventions, dialogues, filmmaking, and performances. We strive to support our artists, partners, and network long-term, deepening our practice and engagement as an artist-driven organization to create sustainable pathways for independent and self-producing artists, artistic experimentation, and the community at large. Read more
About the project Flip Side
Flip side is a series of ten solos created with and for dancer Rachel Tess between 2024-2027, by contemporary choreographers in Sweden and abroad. Commissioned by Tess as a dance anthology, the title refers to the ‘flip side’ or less hyped ‘B-side’ of a record. Since 2013, Tess has created work from deep in the Skanian countryside with a focus on site responsive works, people, and place rather than commercial success. Each edition of Flip side is crafted to showcase her skills as a maturing performer, unearthing an artistry accrued over a long career in dance.
About Rachel Tess
Rachel Tess (b. 1980) is an American dancer and choreographer based in Sweden and is the director of Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC) in Knislinge. She holds a BFA from The Juilliard School (2004) and has danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, and Cullberg Ballet.
She earned an MA in choreography from DOCH in 2013 and has presented works in Sweden, Montréal, New York, and Costa Rica. Her project Souvenir, a mobile choreographic architecture, was exhibited at Wanås Konst in 2014. Since 2010, she has collaborated with Benoît Lachambre as a performer and co-creator.
Tess has choreographed performances for Corpus, Dansk Danseteater, Norrdans, and Skånes Dansteater. In 2019, she received the Birgit Cullberg Award for her work with MARC and Any number of sunsets…, exploring new spaces for dance. In 2023, she was awarded Region Skåne’s Culture Prize for her innovative work in dance.
She has worked with choreographers such as Peter Mills, Tim Matiakis, and Anna Pehrsson and was the associate curator for performance at Wanås Konst (2016–2022). She teaches over 500 school children annually in Knislinge and researches experimental performance in rural areas. She also holds a ten-year working grant from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
About Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies is a dancer and choreographer based in Malmö. Oscillating between clockwork composition and the intensities and chaos generated by dancing bodies surrendering to the desires and forces that traverse them, their dance pieces bring to the forefront the capacity of dance to speak independently from language. Drawing from their former training in ballet, their encounter with specific trends of contemporary dance at the beginning of the 90s, their dance floor experiences in techno clubs and raves and their study of somatic practices, they approach forms as possibilities rather than constraints. Recycling and perverting dance history and heritages, their dances weld forms seemingly foreign to each other. They playfully collapse the distinction and hierarchies between erudite and popular forms of dance. In their pieces, bodies as the instigators of movement don’t reinforce identities but excavate the complexity of their layers.
Since 1996, they have created more than 30 performances, including commissions by Weld Company, DDSKS and Corpus. They present their works locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in various contexts, including dance venues and festivals, music festivals and museums (amongst others: Weld, Inkonst, Skogen, Dansens Hus, Impulstanz, CTM festival, Sophiensaele, Serralves, Roskilde festival, RAS, Moving in November, Wanås Konst, Zürich Moves, La Casa Encendida, Art Stations Foundation, Tanzhaus NRW...). So far, they have presented their work in 21 countries. They also had an extensive career as a dancer, working with Daniel Larrieu, Olivia Grandville, Ania Nowak and Cristina Caprioli, amongst others. They also teach in various contexts, including at university level. They have been the head of programme of the MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH. In 2021, together with Anne Juren, they were the mentor at DanceWEB. Their practice Technosomatics, which they started to share in 2014, has encountered a broad echo.
Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition | Dansens hus
Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition
Frédéric Gies offers a dancing archive of 30 years of career on stage. An intimate portrait, a lover letter to dance and an exploration of all identities and memories gathered by and in a body in movement.
"I started to work in the dance field thirty years ago, in the fall 1991. In Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition, I offer my body as a living, somatic archive of thirty years of dance – thirty years of dance that occurred not only on stage or in the studio, but also on the dance floors where I danced for countless hours. The dances that constitute this piece originate in my deepest kinesthetic memories, in the sediments left by movements I have danced or seen. The sometimes intact, sometimes putrefying dance materials contained in my body constitute the fertile soil for new dances. In the title, deposition refers to the legal term for a written document consisting of the testimony of a witness.
Scorpio, in astrology, represents death, rebirth, transformation and regeneration. It is associated with deep emotional experiences. Terpsichore refers to the Greek muse of dance and to the asteroid Terpsichore. In the fall 2021, this asteroid returns to its placement in the sky when I was born."
Choreography and dance: Frédéric Gies
Dancers in the videos: Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness, Maria Naidu, Malin Stattin, Andrea Svensson, Thomas Zamolo
Music: Fiedel
Lighting Design: Thomas Zamolo
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Videos: Andrea Keiz (editing) and Frédéric Gies (filming)
Coproduced by Inkonst and Skogen
Residence at Danscentrum Syd, Inkonst and Skogen
With the support of Kulturrådet and Malmö stad
Date & Time:
Friday, 2 May 2025, 19.00
Saturday, 3 May 2025, 19.00
Duration: 60 minutes
Venue: Dansens Hus Elverket, Linnégatan 69, Stockholm, Sverige
Dansens Hus
Dansens Hus is Sweden's largest performing arts centre for contemporary dance. Dansens Hus mainly present contemporary Swedish and international dance and related performing arts. Here you can see contemporary companies and choreographers who have characterised the artistic expression of the last decades and those who will do so in the future. Dansens Hus organise insightful seminars, inquisitive lectures, hands-on workshops, playful children's activities and engaging exhibitions. Read more
Chorus | Marabouparken konsthall
Chorus
choros is an exhibition in the form of a meta choreography where six solo choreographies are danced simultaneously during the gallery’s opening hours. The English experimental composer Cornelius Cardew’s score The Tiger’s Mind has been used as a starting-point for the participating choreographers´ artistic works. These have subsequently been translated into asemic writings, texts that have no semantic meaning, which thereafter again are interpreted by the choreographers into six solo works that will be performed in a new relational score. Asemic writings, scores and dance coexist in the same space where a play between the visual, the bodily and the written constantly generates new compositions and meanings in relation to each other. choros is a part of the research project The Curative Act, funded by The Swedish Research Council and Stockholm University of the Arts.
PARTICIPANTS
Marie Fahlin is a researcher, and PhD. Her choreographic works take shape as dance and text, often in relation to visual art. Fahlin has led and participated in many artistic research projects (ska vara projects) where choreography has been integrated with other art forms (ska vara två ord tror jag, art forms). She received her PhD from Stockholm University of the Arts in 2021 with the project Moving through Choreography – Curating Choreography as an Artistic Practice where the exhibition Centauring at Marabouparken konsthall constituted a central part of the dissertation.
Irina Anufrieva is a choreographer and dancer from Belarus, based in Stockholm. Anufrieva has a background in ballet and butoh dance and is educated at SU-EN Butoh Company. In her artistic work Anufrieva is interested in perception and durational performance.
Sybrig Dokter is a Dutch choreographer, dancer and Alexander technique teacher based in Stockholm. Dokter is active in the fields of contemporary dance, visual art and contemporary theater. Her artistic interests are syncronicity, mirror neurons and proximity.
Frédéric Gies is a French choreographer and dancer, based in Malmö. With a background in ballet and contemporary dance they have incorporated club dance and somatic practicises in an aestethic that often addresses the history of dance and bodily archives. Gies is the artistic director of Maison de la Danse.
Anne Juren is a French choreographer and PhD based in Vienna. Juren has studied French literature and is a certified Feldenkrais pedagogue. In her PhD project Juren researched the effect of language on the body through what she calls Fantasmical Anatomies. Since 2025 Juren is an international postdoc researcher based in Brazil.
Anna Koch is a Swedish choreographer, dancer and the artistic director of Weld in Stockholm. Kochs interests in choreography are based on the dancing body in relation to material and writing. Koch has diverse and long standing experience of collaborations with dance, visual art, theater and electronic music.
Date & Time:
Wednesday, 7 May 2025, 17.00–21.00
Thrusday, 8 May 2025, 17.00–21.00
Friday, 9 May 2025, 17.00–21.00
Saturday, 10 May 2025, 12.00–16.00
Sunday, 11 May 2025, 12.00–16.00
Venue: Marabouparken konsthall, Löfströms allé 8, Sundbyberg, Sverige
Free admission
Marabouparken konsthall
Marabouparken konsthall presents contemporary art which reflects the human’s conditions in today’s society and in history. Since 2019 the institution has a new strategic focus on the park as an area of negotiation between nature and the human. The exhibition program is based in today’s need for questioning traditional views on the human’s relation to her surrounding world, in the light of the increasingly urgent questions about our climate and a sustainable use of resources. Read more
MAISON OUVERTE #6
Featuring Cristina Caprioli.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Age restriction workshop: Adults (from 16 yo)
Age restriction performance: Recommended from age 10 and up
Language workshop & talks: English
Language performances: none
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Note: the performance includes loud music
PROGRAMME
18.00 – 19.00 · Closing of season buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer.
19.00 – 20.00 · Handled and Gone (performance by Cristina Caprioli)
aware of her narrow future, every move carefully accounted, she swindles an arc and renders a reverb
standing at the point of divergence of a circle in a square, trapped in delayed escalation, dancing falls into the pit of a hand
where she lingers the unmentionable and speculates a fine-print orbit
by and with cc
sound Richard Chartier, On Leaving
danced in ordinary rooms, for a small crowd of visitors, stripped of all staging, at arm’s length from the audience
handled and gone abandons herself to the faintest timbre of dancing, in a clear stillness with no expectations. In lack of a predetermined prospect, relieved from the promise of improvement, dancing remains in place and moves with no restraint.
Quiet in the spot, moving at raging speed, she shifts tonality, measures and upbeat, lingers a driveway, becomes a modulation in low-intensive pulse. Dancing ceases to perform herself as primary matter, to instead act as connective tissue between substance and perception. A third condition emerges. We see. And in step with the frugal dancing, we sense* all the thread-thin shifts that make this solo so incredibly sparse and at the same time so saturated. We step over a sensory threshold**.
In contrast to the current hysterical oh-so-static pursuit of increased growth with rapidly consumed utility value, this solo proclaims a radical tress-pass. For the dance, through the dancing. In the singular common.
handled and gone has been around several years as a line of thought in several previous choreographies
and in a short order of words named gone
gone
when falling, you stretch out your hand and catch the falling onto the bottom of the fall
in the groundless abyss the helpless is falling into there is no flatness to counter the falling by
yet the startled perplexed finds immediate mitigation to the crash in the hand itself
in the pit the hand bends itself into as to comprehend that which otherwise would rush out of sight
the perplexed that is falling into the pit of her hand is a quiet image, not the least inappropriate, rather a resourceful one
one that is ready, ready to catch the sight of the groundlessness as it falls into the pitfall of her hand
this onehanded dance claims to be falling into the smallest nook of language where the speechless turns into many
bold and invincible, caught by and cared for in the narrow pit of your hand
cc 2020
*A sensation is the reaction of a sense organ to a stimulus. Sensation is the conversion of the nerve impulses formed at the end of signal transduction (a cascade of chemical reactions in a sense cell that begins with the activation of a receptor) into neural signals that can be interpreted by the brain. This interpretation is called perception, and in psychology sensation is therefore not the same thing as perception, even if the concepts are often used synonymously in common language. It is very difficult (if even possible) to experience a pure sensation, the brain is quick to interpret the direction and then the sensation becomes perception.
**The sensation diminishes with repeated or long-term exposure to the same stimulus (so-called habituation or adaptation). When attention to the sensation is low or absent, that is, when impressions are registered in the unconscious, the impression is called subliminal perception. The level at which stimuli are too weak to be perceived is called sensory thresholds.
Handled and Gone will be preceded by short dance intervention by Frédéric Gies, as a tribute to Cristina Caprioli’s dance.
20.15 - 21.00 · Artist talk
Conversation with Cristina Caprioli and Frédéric Gies.
Photos : Haroldo Saboia
About Cristina Caprioli
Cristina Caprioli (Brescia, 1953) works with dance and choreography of today, spanning over performances, installations, films, publications, seminars, festivals, social interactions and long-term intra-disciplinary research projects. All work performs a critical urgency of thought and action, through precision of sign and complexity of structure, in rigor with increased sensibility, unstable in conviction. All work reaches out to all and one only, by singular encounters in the common. For the thrill of a shared aesthetic experience. For the dancing that stirs the world up and touches our senses.
After decades of dancing in Europe and the US, Caprioli settled in Stockholm where in the 90’s she founded the independent organization ccap, which since is the site of all her work. Through the years she has toured her productions nationally and internationally, taught extensively and choreographed for institutions such as the 59North Dance Company and GöteborgOperans balettkompani. From 2008 to 2013 she was Professor of Choreography at the Stockholm University of the Arts. Since then, involved in post-graduate studies and acting as supervisor for PhD students. In 2022 ONCE OVER TIME – a retrospective performed at Tanz im August in Berlin, and Caprioli served as Mercator guest professor at Freie Universität in Berlin.
Caprioli has received several awards, such as the Cullberg price (2008), the prestigious Gannevik stipendium (2013), and the royal medal Illis quorum meruere labores (2021) “for her extensive and significant work as a dancer and choreographer as well as outstanding contributions in both the Swedish and the international dance field.” 2024 she was honored with the Carina Ari Medal, and La Biennale di Venezia’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.
In contrast to the current hysterical oh-so-static pursuit of increased growth with rapidly consumed utility value, this solo proclaims a radical tress-pass. For the dance, through the dancing. In the singular common.
About Dance is Ancient
Photo : Thomas Zamolo
Dance is ancient is an initiative for artistic creation and for the development of public encounters in the field of dance and choreography under the direction of Frédéric Gies. It is an artist-led organization , a production and touring structure for Frédéric Gies work , an audience-focused context and curating organ for presenting own and guest performances and a platform for the transmission and production of both practical and theoretical knowledge in the field of dance through workshops, discussions, mentorship and research.
ACCESSIBILITY
MAISON OUVERTE #4
The event will present a thoughtfully curated program of performances, workshops, and conversations that are both poetic and political, and resolutely queer.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Age restriction workshops: Adults (from 16 yo)
Age restriction performances: Recommended from age 10 and up
Language workshops & talk: English
Language performances: see below
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Note: the performances include partial nudity
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
PROGRAMME
15.30 – 18.15 · Almost Not Ballet + dance history crash course (workshop by Frédéric Gies)
1 hour of dance practice and 1,5 hour of dance history crash course mixing theory and practice. The workshop is open to everyone, regardless of any background in dance and is designed for both first timers and dance nerds.
Almost not ballet:
Frédéric Gies shares their practice of using ballet movement vocabulary as a means of exploring and embodying anatomical structures.
Dance history crash course:
Taking one of the dances of Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition as a case study and navigating between theory and embodied practice, we will draw connections between this dance made in 2021 and various landmarks in Western dance history, from Vaslav Nijinsky to Dominque Bagouet and from Trisha Brown to Cristina Caprioli.
18.15 – 19.00 · Mingle + Buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer.
19.00 – 20.15 · Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition (performance by Frédéric Gies)
Frédéric Gies offers a dancing archive of 30 years of career on stage. An intimate portrait, a lover letter to dance and an exploration of all identities and memories gathered by and in a body in movement.
"I started to work in the dance field thirty years ago, in the fall 1991. In Terpsichore in Scorpio – Deposition, I offer my body as a living, somatic archive of thirty years of dance – thirty years of dance that occurred not only on stage or in the studio, but also on the dance floors where I danced for countless hours. The dances that constitute this piece originate in my deepest kinesthetic memories, in the sediments left by movements I have danced or seen. The sometimes intact, sometimes putrefying dance materials contained in my body constitute the fertile soil for new dances. In the title, deposition refers to the legal term for a written document consisting of the testimony of a witness.
Scorpio, in astrology, represents death, rebirth, transformation and regeneration. It is associated with deep emotional experiences. Terpsichore refers to the Greek muse of dance and to the asteroid Terpsichore. In the fall 2021, this asteroid returns to its placement in the sky when I was born."
Choreography and dance: Frédéric Gies
Dancers in the videos: Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness, Maria Naidu, Malin Stattin, Andrea Svensson, Thomas Zamolo
Music: Fiedel
Lighting Design: Thomas Zamolo
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Videos: Andrea Keiz (editing) and Frédéric Gies (filming)
Coproduced by Inkonst and Skogen
Residence at Danscentrum Syd, Inkonst and Skogen
With the support of Kulturrådet and Malmö stad
20.30 – 21.15 · Artist talk
Conversation with Frédéric Gies.
Doors close at 21.30
Photos : Natalia Reich/ Haus für Poesie, Thomas Zamolo, Frédéric Gies
About Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Dance is Ancient. Their dance pieces navigate between meticulous composition and the raw intensity and chaos generated by bodies surrendering to internal desires and external forces. Gies’ work highlights the power of dance to communicate without the need for representation. In their performances, bodies do not reinforce identities but instead uncover the complexity of their layers. Additionally, Gies' work is deeply intertwined with techno music, creating a unique and immersive experience.
ACCESSIBILITY
MAISON OUVERTE #3: Thiago Granato + ‘Care for dance’
Featuring Brazilian artist Thiago Granato and the collaboration between Dance is ancient, Milvus Artistic Research Center and Dans i Blekinge, the program for our last event of the season, from dance practice to performance, conversations and party, is an invitation to delve into how we care for dance and the poetics of trance.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Age restriction workshop: Adults (from 16 yo)
Age restriction performance: Recommended from age 10 and up
Language workshop & talks: English
Language performances: none
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Note: the performance includes loud music
PROGRAMME
15.00 - 17.00 · Technosomatics workshop
Technosomatics is a unique dance practice that delves into the connection between club dancing to techno music and the body's chakras and endocrine glands. Developed and shared globally by Frédéric Gies since 2014, this practice offers a transformative experience. Booking recommended
17.00 - 17.30 · Mingle & Buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer.
17.30 - 18.30 · ‘Care for dance’ presentation
Rebecca Yates, Rachel Tess and Frédéric Gies present their on-going investigation and collaborative project “Care for dance”. “Care for dance” is an ongoing investigation into how we create, host, support, produce, and disseminate dance. In the beginning of 2024 an alliance was formed between Dance is ancient director Frédéric Gies, Dans i Blekinge artistic director Rebecca Yates, and MARC director Rachel Tess, who noted the need for a space for critical discourse and solidarity amongst artist-driven platforms in the south.
18.30 - 19.00 · Mingle & Buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer.
19.00 - 20.00 · Trança by Thiago Granato (performance)
In Trança, to the soundtrack by the São Paulo based DJ and music producer Márcio Vermelho, Thiago Granato invites us to a tactile excursion where sound and movement intertwine on vertiginous surfaces and temporalities. Through a choreography of hands, Thiago Granato accelerates transformation processes where different forces are translated into signs, promoting an investigation on the body's power to create contexts that shape new ways of life. The piece is part of a larger body of work entitled CHOREOVERSATIONS, a research on different imaginary collaborations between dead and living choreographers, as well as those not born yet.
Concept, direction, choreography and performance: Thiago Granato / Invited choreographers (interlocutores): Cristian Duarte e João Saldanha / Direction assistance and co-creation: Sandro Amaral / Original track and sound designing: Márcio Vermelho / Costume adviser: Paula Ströher
20.00 - 21.00 · Artist talk
Frédéric Gies, Rachel Tess and Rebecca Yates converse with Thiago Granato and the audience, around Thiago’s Trança and the topic of ‘Care for dance’.
23.00 - 01.00 · Closing Party !
Location: Brogatan, Malmö. DJ: Rivet. Sign up to our newsletter to get all the info directly in your mailbox.
Photos : Haroldo Saboia
About Thiago Granato
Photo: Jan Fedinger
Thiago Granato is a Brazilian choreographer currently based in Berlin. His performances have been presented in different countries as Brazil, Israel, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Holland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Lebanon and Korea. From 2013 to 2014, he was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, where he developed his ongoing choreographic research project, CHOREOVERSATIONS. This project explores imagined collaborations between Thiago and deceased, living, and future choreographers. Kundalini Yoga has been a foundational practice in his creative process as a dance maker and choreographer, preparing the body for somatic approach to movement research.
About Dans i Blekinge
Dans i Blekinge's vision is a Blekinge where professional dancers want and can live and work, where dance is a natural and integral part of the performing arts environment, utilizing its geographical location for artistic exchanges nationally and internationally. It aims to create a dynamic space for production and participation, serving as a platform for the dissemination of dance art and its presence, where artists and audiences can share influences, ideas, and inspiration. Rebecca Yates is the artistic director of the organization.
About MARC
Photo : Kajsa Rolfsson
Milvus Artistic Research Center (MARC), under the direction of Rachel Tess, is located in Knislinge. It offers an environment for artistic research outside the context of the big city. MARC invite artists within the fields of choreography, dance, and visual artists with a relationship to performance to participate in residencies at the center year-round. Through the residency program, it provides a platform where performance practices, working modes, and methodologies are questioned, and new work is created and shared between artists and audiences.
About Dance is ancient
Photo : Thomas Zamolo
Dance is ancient is an initiative for artistic creation and for the development of public encounters in the field of dance and choreography under the direction of Frédéric Gies. It is an artist-led organization , a production and touring structure for Frédéric Gies work , an audience-focused context and curating organ for presenting own and guest performances and a platform for the transmission and production of both practical and theoretical knowledge in the field of dance through workshops, discussions, mentorship and research.
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MAISON OUVERTE #2: Carte blanche to Dance Cooperative
Dance is ancient gives carte blanche to Dance Cooperative to present their new works, practices and fresh ideas.
Dance Cooperative is an artist-run platform and association with a physical workspace in Valby, organized by 12 Copenhagen-based choreographers, dancers and performing artists. Dance Cooperative and its members organize around both collegial support and a shared interest in artistic practice that explores queer, anti-racist, eco-sensitive and intersectional feminist themes. The cooperative organizes performance events, workshops and network events for and by practicing performing artists and other curious beings. Dance Cooperative creates sustainable frames for producing, working, and experimenting with performing arts, dance, and choreography.
The 12 members are: Lydia Östberg Diakité, Emilie Gregersen, Paolo de Venecia Gile, Oriane Paras, Andreas Haglund, Camilla Lind, Mikka Mallow, Antoinette Helbing, Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen, Ar Utke Ács, Beck Heiberg and Klara Lopez. The members artistic practices consists of a tapestry of different aesthetics and methodologies. From choreographies for stage to long-durational performances for public spaces and dances for night clubs. Throughout these differences the members of the cooperative share an ambition to explore immanent politics of contemporary existence, to twist and turn ideas, preconceptions and approaches to other humans, ecology and our societal systems.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Booking will be made available on our booking page as the program unfolds.
PROGRAMME
The schedule will unfold gradually here. Sign up to our newsletter to get all the info directly in your mailbox.
DANCE COOPERATIVE’s LINEUP
Portaits (from left to right and up and down): Andreas Haglund, Antoinette Helbing, Sigrid Stigsdatter, Camilla Lind, Klara Lopez
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Andreas works as a freelance dancer and performer and choreographer. He has a BA in Dance and choreography from The Danish National School of Performing Arts. He is a member of Dance Cooperative; a new platform, dance studio and place for intersectional practice and performances in Copenhagen. Andreas has, among other things, worked with choreographers such as Jules Fischer, Andros Zins-Browne, Ágnes Grélinger, Thjerza Balaj, Paolo Gile, Stina Ehn, Antonia Harke and Denise Lim. Andreas performed in several Chiron in Aries’ pieces: Hope, Barricades and Legacies, Constellations and Alliances. He will also collaborate on the future opus of the cycle.
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Antoinette Helbing (she/her) is a German dance artist and member of the artist-run platform Dance CooperativE in Copenhagen (DK). She divides her time between creating, performing, teaching and practising within the Feldenkrais method.
Her choreographic work is driven by her wish to create art that evokes the viewer’s sense of belonging, of togetherness and empathy – seeing those attributes as patches for the holes in the world’s community. Our endlessly self-centred way of life is threatening both ecosystems and humanity. Societies are increasingly categorising and exclusive while our physical closeness with each other reduces. And yet we are bodies – ripe, receptive, vulnerable and demanding. Despite the influence of the digital world that reduces our ability to sense ourselves and others. What does it mean to exist as a body in our modern world?
As a reminder that we, beyond our instagram handles, are actual living and breathing beings, Antoinette creates experiences within and across bodies. Working towards connection, she addresses the empathic through multi-sensory experiences. Confronting with the sensual force of the moment, she makes the audience aware of themselves by their own sensual experience of themselves as spectators. She’s researching methods to transfer the performers’ sensations directly into the audience’s body. This bodily translation carries the potential to fantasise, to sense and to think from another body’s perspective. -
Camilla Lind is an inter-disciplinary and-performance artist. In her work she is occupied with interlacing the public with the private space and draws references to mythology, pop culture and subculture. She explores the notion of the body as a socialised, political and psychodramatic collective entity. She figurates in the notions of failure, sexuality and performativity as places to unveil new potentials of knowledge, where humour is an inevitable tool in her work. She is part of the artist driven space Dance Cooperative in CPH and educated in Dance and Choreography from the The Danish National school of performing arts.
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Klara Lopez is a multidisciplinary visual artist. With a dance background, she is currently a student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Featuring a variety of media, her works explore intimacy, distance, desire and disgust.
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Lydia Östberg Diakité is an artist who works across performance, video, text and choreography - often combined in installation and performative formats. With her practice, Diakité conveys complex speculative narratives on themes such as identity, power, heritage, popular cultural references and performative gestures.
Diakité graduated from The Danish National School of Performing Arts’ dance and choreography studies in 2017 and has since worked and toured with several works internationally: immortal summit (2021) and A Choreographic Conversation (2021) created together with BamBam Frost; CRY BABY (2020) and FIEBRE (2018), co-signed by Tamara Alegre and Marie Ursin and winner of The ImPulsTanz – Young Choreogra phers’ Award – [8:tension] series 2021.
Diakité is co-founder of Dance Cooperative (2019), an artist-run studio in Copenhagen, and serves on the board of The Union (2018), a cultural workers’ association that aims to create critical anti-racist discourse within the art and culture scene in Denmark. -
Sigrid Stigsdatter is a choreographer, performer and vocalist based between Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Through body and voice, text and sound her practice interrogates the addictive, the emotional, the intuitive, and the wild. She explores how the resonance created between performer and audience can leave us forever changed. By saying yes and yes and yes and and and instead of or or or she creates a dramaturgy that insist on the multiple, the layers, the complicated, the punk and magic.
Sigrid completed her BA of choreography at School for New Dance Development, SNDO in 2017 and is currently pursuing her MA in Choreography at The Danish National School of Performing Arts.
In addition to her own projects, Sigrid works with various other artists such as Alex Baczyński Jenkins, Andreas Hannes, Tino Sehgal, Oneka Von Schrader, Miriam Kongstad and Emilie Gregersen. She is an active member of Jacuzzi in Amsterdam and Dance Cooperative in Copenhagen two artist-run spaces working for and with the community around the dance and performance scene. Her involvement in these collectives and political spaces continues to be a crucial part of her artistic function.
Sigrid was selected Aerowaves artist 2022, Icehot artist 2022, Danceweb 2018 and received the moving forward award 2017. She has shown her work or been in residency at Tanzhaus Zürich, MTD Stockholm, Dansateliers Rotterdam, HAUT Copenhagen, Veem House For Performance, Azkuna Zentora Bilbao, Dansbrabant Tilburg, New Fears Berlin and many more.
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MAISON OUVERTE #1: Ania Nowak + Frédéric Gies
Our first open house of the season will feature Berlin-based artist Ania Nowak and Dance is ancient’s artistic director Frédéric Gies. The event will present a thoughtfully curated program of performances, workshops, and conversations that are both poetic and political, and resolutely queer.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet
Age restriction workshops: Adults (from 16 yo)
Age restriction performances: Recommended from age 10 and up
Language workshops & talk: English
Language performances: see below
Info: come for the whole day and evening, or at the beginning of each programme point
Note: the performances include partial nudity
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
PROGRAMME
14.00 · Impromptu by Frédéric Gies (performance/danced opening)
Presentation of the programme of Maison de la Danse in the form of a dance performance.
Language: English
14.30 - 15.30 · Interplay (Workshop with Ania Nowak)
In this workshop for everyone, regardless of skill levels, Ania Nowak shares aspects of her practice that explores the interplay between body and language. Sign up recommended
15.30 - 16.00 · Break
16.00 - 17.00 · Almost not ballet (Workshop with Frédéric Gies)
Frédéric shares their practice of using ballet movement vocabulary as a means of exploring and embodying anatomical structures. The workshop is open to everyone, regardless of skill levels. Sign up recommended
17.00 - 18.00 · Mingle + Buffet
Mingle and enjoy our buffet in the foyer
18.00 - 20.00 · Performances
Obelix Nutrix by Ania Nowak · Nowak's performance critically addresses the potential dilution of humaneness and empathy in nursing as digital tools become increasingly prevalent. Through spoken word, enhanced by a soundscape and strong costume, the performance invites the audience to contemplate the future of nursing. It speculates on how the essence of care might change as professions, including nursing, transition into digital realms, reflecting on the implications for public health systems.
Choreography and performance: Ania Nowak / Sound: Justyna Stasiowska / Costume: Grzegorz Matlag
Language: English
Deflecting Misfortune and Averting the Evil Eye by Frédéric Gies · Gies presents again their latest creation from last spring, a piece that delves into the ancient ritual of exposing one's buttocks. This exploration translates the practice into a dance, transforming it into a poetic and political gesture aimed at confronting and dispelling the myriad evils of today’s world.
Dance and choreography : Frédéric Gies / Music : Fiedel / Costume : Grzegorz Matlag
Language: none
Deep inside by Ania Nowak · In Deep Inside, Nowak looks at ecstasy. She juxtaposes house music and its lyrics with Baroque poetry and sculpturesque depictions of divine ecstasy. Using repetition, rhythm and content of both house music and Baroque texts to search for collective body and soul, she listens to voices that drove house rhythms to summon many long forgotten black singers, often marginalized due to their gender and race. Nowak speaks with the ghosts of those voices, honoring them as leaders and partners. For memory and ecstasy.
Text remix, choreography, performance: Ania Nowak / Sound: Justyna Stasiowska / Costume: Grzegorz Matląg/ Outside eye: Julia Plawgo/ Text excerpts from Frankie Knuckles (feat. Jamie Principle), “Your Love”; Fonda Rae, “Tuch Me” and “Living in Ecstasy”; Ellis D. Presents Boom-Boom, “Work This Pussy (Hurt Me Mix)”; Robin S, “Show Me Love”; Black Box, “Ride on Time”; House to House, “Taste My Love”; Crystal Waters, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”; Sonikku ft. LIZ (SOPHIE remix), “Sweat”; Rozalla, “Everybody’s Free”; Clivilles’ & Cole, “A Deeper Love (A Deeper Feeling Mix)”; Peech Boys “Don’t Make Me Wait”; Lope de Vega, “Various Effects of Love”; Francisco de Quevedo, “Love That Endures Beyond Death” / Production La Casa Encendida / Supported by Ankara Queer Art Program
Language: English
20.00 - 21.00 · Artist talk
Conversation with Ania Nowak and Frédéric Gies, led by August Norborg, PAGE 28.
Doors close at 21.30
Photos : Natalia Reich/ Haus für Poesie, Thomas Zamolo, Frédéric Gies
About Ania Nowak
Ania Nowak approaches vulnerability and desire as ways towards reimagining what bodies and language can and cannot do. Nowak develops formats such as live and video performance, installation and text. In her practice Ania engages with bodies in their nonlinear feeling and thinking capacity to tackle the difficulties of companionship and care in times of perpetual crisis. Her work attempts to reimagine the notions of disorder, pleasure, disease, intimacy, pain, sexuality, class and accessibility as sites of binary free living.
About Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Dance is Ancient. Their dance pieces navigate between meticulous composition and the raw intensity and chaos generated by bodies surrendering to internal desires and external forces. Gies’ work highlights the power of dance to communicate without the need for representation. In their performances, bodies do not reinforce identities but instead uncover the complexity of their layers. Additionally, Gies' work is deeply intertwined with techno music, creating a unique and immersive experience.
About August Norborg
August Norborg (she/her) is a Malmö-based artist and curator, active among else as the cultural event curator for PAGE 28, the producer of concert series Kallelse at Inkonst as well as Rendered Voice Festival at Skissernas Museum, and performs electronic music under the moniker FASCIA. With a start in music, she specialises in interdisciplinary work and the interaction of artistic mediums. She is currently producing the dance work Surbending with Andreas Haglund.
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DEFLECTING MISFORTUNE AND AVERTING THE EVIL EYE
DEFLECTING MISFORTUNE AND AVERTING THE EVIL EYE
At the time we are releasing our spring programme, we do not know if Deflecting Misfortune and Averting the Evil Eye will be the premiere of a finished piece or a work in progress. In any case, we will make sure that the distinction between the two will be completely irrelevant, as for sure, it will be a full show ! The show will be followed by a discussion with the artist.
The title Deflecting Misfortune and Averting the Evil Eye refers to an action that ended up being a kind of personal signature in almost all my pieces since 2016 as well as in my clubbing life (when the context allows it): the so-called anasyrma, or the ritualistic action of exposing one’s genitals or buttocks, fulfilling a protective magic function. I didn’t know that exposing my buttocks publicly in the name of art in performances or in the name of comfort, defiance and body-positivity in specific club settings was actually relating to ancient traditions but I always sensed it’s magic power. That is why I integrated it in my performances in the first place.
In Deflecting Misfortune and Averting the Evil Eye, I will not only explore how I can translate the ritualistic practice of exposing one’s buttocks into dance but also how dance itself can perform the function of the anasyrma. Today, there are many evils I can imagine exposing my buttocks to, many evils I wish my dance could magically repel. At least, I hope that my dance will make us laugh out loud at all the evil on Earth.
Frédéric Gies, 12 February 2024.
Dance & Choreography: Frédéric Gies
PRACTICAL INFO
Date & Time
Sat. 4 May 2024 - 19.00
Programme
18.30 : Doors open
19.00 : Show
20.15 : Discussion with the artist (in English)
21.15 : Doors close
Place
Festsalen, Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10B. Go up the stairs, first floor.
Price: free
Language: English
Age restriction: For all. Please note : the show contains partial nudity.
Note: the show contains loud music and partial nudity
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
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MAISON OUVERTE (Open House)
MAISON OUVERTE (Open House) :
The Poor But Sexy Edition
We invite you to a 7-hour programme of dance performances, dance practice and conversation ! Come for the whole day or make your own programme : come and go as you wish all day.
Using the famous quote “poor but sexy”, coined by Berlin’s former mayor Wowereit for defining the city at the beginning of the noughties is our humorous way to combat economic hardship. But not only.
Last fall, when we were temporarily “rich”, we treated you with our first edition of the format Maison Ouverte. We managed to present a generous programme involving 5 artists (4 dancers and choreographers and 1 DJ), which consisted of two full days of performances, experiments and artist talks by Dance is ancient and guests, as well as a Technosomatics session and dance classes. We don’t have the means to achieve that much this spring, but we decided to transform that constraint into a leverage for concocting an exciting programme at minimum costs, in which even brains can become the sexiest organs.
This spring, Maison Ouverte takes place over one day only, but what a day ! It will take place on two floors of the Ungdomens Hus, as we will start in Teater Barbro on the first floor and then move to our beloved Festsalen on the second floor. Check the detailed programme below. Soft drinks, nutritious and tasty snacks will be served.
Date & Time : Saturday, 20 April 2024 from 15.00 to 21.30
Place : Teater Barbro & Festsalen at Ungdomens Hus. Access : entrance via Norra Skolgatan 10B. Teater Barbro is on the ground floor, as soon as you get in the building. Festsalen is on the first floor. Follow the yellow arrows.
Language performances : none
Language workshops & discussion : English.
Age restriction : for all. Children accepted during the workshops if accompanied by an adult.
Price : Free
Note 1 : The show “One Unclouded Dance For A Crowd” & the workshops contain loud music.
Note 2 : Activities and performances all day : come and go as you wish. Detailed schedule below.
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
Frédéric Gies performing Jumelles (2023). Photo : Thomas Zamolo
DETAILED PROGRAMME
15.00 · [Teater Barbro] · Welcome words by Dance is ancient team
Introduction. In English.
15.15 · [Teater Barbro] · Album (revisited)
- Performance
In 2009, Frédéric Gies created the piece Album (praticable), for which they created short dances as if they were pop songs. They presented them on stage, in the form of a dance concert and also created video versions of them, in collaboration with the video artist Andrea Keiz, as if making music videos. The collection of dance videos was then distributed in the form of a DVD (yes, it was in 2009 !!!), given as “merch for free” to the spectators after each show.
Today, in Album (revisited), Frédéric Gies will revisit some of these dances and will present new ones, created for the occasion. This uncanny dance concert will navigate between a deviant/surrealist cabaret, a dance diva recital from another century with a hint of a punk-rock performance and a poetry salon in which gesture have replaced words.
Album (practicable), 2019. Screenshot from the video made in collaboration with Andrea Keiz.
16.30 · [Teater Barbro] · Technosomatics tea dance
- Workshop + dance floor
After a 30 minutes exploration guided by Frédéric Gies (in English), consisting of getting in touch with your bodily sensations and chakras, the dancefloor will be all yours. Expect great techno from an invisible DJ, quasi-darkness in the middle of the afternoon and to embark on a self-discovery dance journey, with all the fun and seriousness it encompasses! No dance background or previous Technosomatics experience required.
18.15 · [Festsalen - Foyer] · Break with buffet
You are invited to the foyer of Festsalen, where a buffet is provided.
18.45 · [Festsalen - Scene] · One Unclouded Dance for a Crowd
- Performance
One Unclouded Dance for a Crowd originates in Unclouded dances, a performance/ritual for one-spectator at a time, exploring the healing potential of the act of dancing. Here, instead of a one-to-one performance, Frédéric Gies designed a collective version of this performance/ritual, during which they will dance for you, after guiding you in a series of simple collective actions, which will determine the nature and function of the dance. The dance will become a surface of projection for dreams and desires.
Performance and dance : Frédéric Gies / Music : Fiedel / Costume : Grzegorz Matlag
19.45 · [Festsalen - Foyer] · Break with buffet
You are invited to the foyer of Festsalen, where a buffet is provided.
20.15 · [Festsalen - Scene] · Techno-oke
- Dance practice
Technooke: dance like you would sing at the karaoke. Here, no lyrics to follow but the video-documentation of Shadowboxing by Frédéric Gies, projected on the screen, is here for inspiration. Dance a volcano, an ostrich, a shooting star or a sexy snake to the exhilarating techno beats by Fiedel. No one will watch you as everyone will face the screen. You can as well just watch the video and enjoy the music.
20.15 · [Festsalen - Foyer] · Lounge for thoughts
- Conversation
The foyer becomes a lounge area, as a space for reflection at the end of the day. Frédéric Gies will answer your questions and side conversations will be enabled. A specific score for the conversations will be provided. In English.
Doors close at 21.30
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SPRING OPENING : Perverting and Recycling Dance History
SPRING OPENING :
Perverting and Recycling Dance History
A 3-in-1 night: Cinema + Talk + Dance around Frédéric Gies’ celebrated Queens of the Fauns (2019).
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
(...) the strength of "Queens of the fauns" is that it shows how, not just bodies and their appearance, but also choreography itself, can break with and create new structures of desires. "Queens of the fauns" is not a modernized version of Nijinsky's masterpiece, but uses it as historical material, to investigate what is physically possible today when the question of sexual conquest, more than a hundred years later, looks very different from the time of Nijinsky.
Josefine Wikström, Dagens Nyheter (Translated from Swedish) (about Queen of the Fauns at Skogen, 2019)
PROGRAMME
Queens of the fauns - Performance screening
Maison de la danse goes cinema!
For the opening of the performance programme of Maison de la Danse 2024, we treat you to a screening of the video documentation of the performance Queens of the Fauns, hosted by Frédéric Gies. They created this dance performance, much commented in the Swedish press, in 2019. The performance is a dialogue with The Afternoon of a Faun by Nijinsky, which is considered the first modern dance piece, as it broke with the tradition of ballet. It consists of a duet with dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Ward, to an original soundtrack by Fiedel, which navigates, not without humor, between quoting Debussy’s Afternoon of a Faun, evoking a wood rave and making us dive into the sweaty darkness of a dancefloor. The latex costumes by Grzegorz Matlag, the minimal and industrial lighting design by Thomas Zamolo as well as the uncanny trees of the set design by the visual artist Anton Stoianov contribute to the construction of a fanciful world in which the dancers playfully pervert dance history and dismantle gender binaries through choreography itself.
Before the screening, Frédéric will give a short introduction to the project and to the historical work it is based on.
Choreography : Frédéric Gies
Dance : Frédéric Gies and Elizabeth Ward
Music : Fiedel
Lighting design : Thomas Zamolo
Costumes : Grzegorz matlag
Set design : Anton Stoianov
Video documentation : Thomas Zamolo
Coproduced by Weld, Inkonst and Skogen / with the support of Konstnärsnämnden and Kulturrådet
Fauning Dance practice - Workshop
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Frédéric will share with you a dance practice used in Queens of the Fauns, which they call “fauning” and which borrows some iconic moves from Nijinsky’s piece, remixes them to techno beats, to the point it starts resembling voguing, faun style! This practice doesn’t require any speficic background in dance.
Level : all levels, no previous knowledge required
Music track: Fiedel and Boris. Discover it in forehand here !
Conversation with Frédéric Gies
- Discussion
Photo : Thomas Zamolo
Frédéric Gies will answer your questions about Queens of the Fauns. They will also address what has been the process of dialoguing with the original piece and what strategies they put in place for queering and perverting the original work.
Moderator : Ambre Andriamanana
PRACTICAL INFO
Language performance : none
Language presentation, workshops & talk : English
Age restriction : for all. Children accepted if accompanied by an adult. Please note : the show contains partial nudity
Note : the show contains loud music and partial nudity
Price: free
Date & Times
Friday 12 April 2024 - 19.00
Programme
18.30 : Doors open
19.00 : Screening of Queens of the fauns, with an introduction by Frédéric Gies
20.15 : Fauning dance practice
20.45 : Conversation with Frédéric Gies
21.30 : Doors close
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
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Open Class
Open Class
Participate in Dance is Ancient’s daily training. The class is led by choreographer Frédéric Gies and explores contemporary dance technique in relation to anatomy. All exercises can be followed at your own rhythm.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet.
Age Restriction: Adults (from 16 yo).
Levels: All levels
Language: English.
SCHEDULE SPRING 2024
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Tuesday, 9 April 2024
10.15-11.30 - Sal 12 at Ungdomens Hus (access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the courtyard: first door to the left, go up the stairs, first floor.)
Please let us know if you need to cancel or if there is a day you can't make it via danceisancient@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.ACCESSIBILITY
Technosomatics Workshops
Technosomatics workshops
Frédéric Gies’ movement practice is toured internationally in festivals and dance theaters and shared with dance students and professionals around the world. In the frame of La Maison de la Danse, we offer technosomatics workshops for all levels, free of charge. Dance at your own rhythm: you can either sign up to single sessions and let go of the week’s pressure or sign up to several sessions in order to take the most of the practice and connect deeper with your own body and states of consciousness.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet.
Age Restriction: Adults (from 16 yo).
Language: English.
Note: the workshop includes loud music.
Drop-in accepted in limit of available spots. Booking recommended.
SCHEDULE SPRING 2024
Photo: Henrik Ljusberg
Monday, 26 February 2024
18.30-21.00 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 11 March 2024
18.30-21.00 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 25 March 2024
18.30-21.00 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Monday, 8 April 2024
18.30-21.00 - Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus
Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.
Please let us know if you need to cancel or if there is a day you can't make it via danceisancient@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.ABOUT TECHNOSOMATICS
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. The practice is toured internationally and taught in various dance MA and MBA programs. Frédéric also animate regular free practices for all levels in Malmö in the frame of la Maison de la Danse.
Technosomatics consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centers) through club dancing to techno music as wells as the opposite: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions.
Drawing by Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies has teached the practice internationally to both professional dancers and the general audience. The practice has been shared in several dance BA and MA programmes as well as at diverse public manifestations such as Impulstanz (Vienna), Tanzkongress (Dresden), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw), Art stations – Stary Browar (Poznan), Ponderosa (Germany), Weld (Stockholm), HZT (Berlin), Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Skogen (Gothenburg) etc. and has met its audience internationally.
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#THE PARTY
#THE PARTY after a dance after a dance after another dance - 2023
After #THREE (a dance after a dance after another dance - 2023), the grand finale of Maison de la Danse 2023, let’s celebrate a year of dancing with a Party! Live DJ and techno beats with local artist Rivet and Berghain resident Fiedel!
This party is organized in collaboration with Kontra-musik.
PROGRAMME
Before 22.00: join us for the last dance show of La Maison de la Danse Fall 2023 + party warm up at Ungdomens Hus! All info HERE
***
22.00-Midnight: Rivet
Midnight-02.00: Fiedel
ABOUT OUR GUEST DJS
Rivet
Hinted at by his work as the body music enthusiast behind Kess Kill record label and the years honing his production skills first as Grovskopa and then as Rivet, his current sound has a sophisticated slink and a surprisingly accessible twist of pop, while still recognizable in its dance music lineage.
While the album signaled a change of sound, it also prompted him to premiere his brand new live set at the 2021 edition of Intonal Festival in his hometown of Malmö – alongside the gorgeous spectacle of shibari rope artist Ziggi Willpower – adding another dimension to the Rivet story. He's already known for his wild and borderless DJ sets, where he's played the most hallowed clubs around the world with fierce intentions and rare skill, on more decks than he has hands. He juggles, cuts, drops and chops at an alarming rate, but crucially never to the detriment of overall flow – Rivet is a passionate and driving spirit in the art of mixing, whether it's in service to the sweatiest dancefloors or more thoughtful and experimental in form.
Fiedel
Photo: Dimitrios Bizios
Photo: Felipe Sepúlveda
Contrast. Objection. Antithesis. This is how you might start an attempt to describe the world. A seemingly chaos of shapes and thoughts that don’t belong to each other. An overall image to be found in life and in music. But that’s not Fiedel’s view of the world. Where others make distinctions, he sees connections, where others find emptiness, he finds rooms full of opportunities.
Finding those harmonies, connections and contexts marks out his musical work. The synthesis of apparently opposing music, the interaction and the mix of styles and moods, without loosing the storyline, that makes out the characteristic Fiedel sound.
After the wall came down, the way was open to access a fresh scene, and with it came a whole spectrum of new and old music to discover. In the beginning of the 1990s, he started DJing in public as a regular at the Monday events at Subversiv. Shortly after he began his collaboration with his befriended Errorsmith under the name of MMM. They released several productions and play live shows. Since 2000 he is resident at OstGut and later on at Berghain. On the compilation Fünf he had his first solo release on the incorporated Ostgut Ton label, followed by contributions to the compilations Various (2013) and Ostgut Ton | Zehn (2015). In 2012 he eventually founded his own label Fiedelone, to give his own productions a more personal base. In spring 2014 he developed a live set, which he premiered at Berghain. March 2017 saw his first full Ostgut Ton release with the 12″ Substance B, followed up by his contribution to the Berghain mixes series in January 2018.
You can say one thing about Fiedel: he is no techno or house stereotype pattern, that you can put randomly on a every evening or club. He is lead by his history, the history of the music and the feeling of the moment to build something new and to capture this very moment. Let it be the straight dark techno of today, banging acid of the 80ies or an electro funk record, Fiedel surprises. He undermines and overrides expectations and refrains to limit the music for any reason. He lets the music speak for itself, through himself.
#THREE
#THREE (A dance after a dance after another dance - 2023)
#THREE is the last iteration of this fall performance series “A dance after a dance after another dance – 2023” and the grand finale of Maison de la danse 2023.
This evening programme will consists of two dance performances that have never been presented live yet: Manifesto 1, a brand new work, and Tilt to Turn, a work that has only been presented online so far.
After the show, the audience is invited to meet and talk with the artists over a buffet. For the ones who want to join the closing party of La Maison de la Danse - Fall 2023, we will offer a surprise practice in the shape of a somatic party warm up and mobile invisible inner rave, to bring us from Ungdomens hus to Brogatan’s dancefloor.
PROGRAMME
Tilt to Turn by Rivet & Frédéric Gies
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Tilt to Turn is danced and choreographed by Frédéric Gies, to a live set by Rivet. This performances was originally created for the camera and streamed online in 2021. It was the fruit of an invitation by the Intonal Festival. In 2021, the possibilities of meeting and playing live were uncertain. So Intonal Festival decided to do little guerrilla actions where they would crash various locations around Malmö, without notice or announcement, and just create what they loved. No crowd or anything, just them, the artists and their creativity. To fuel souls while we kept waiting for the world to open up for culture again.
Tilt to Turn was filmed and shared online but had never been shared live… until now! On original music performed by Rivet, Frédéric Gies will dance for the first time Tilt to Turn live.
Dance: Frédéric Gies
Music (live): Rivet
Manifesto 1 by Frédéric Gies
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Manifesto 1 is a new solo danced by Elise Brewer and choreographed by Frédéric Gies, on a music track by Fiedel. It will be part of the upcoming piece “Manifestos: Chiron in Aries, Recital #5 and #6”, which will premiere in the fall 2025 and will be presented at Inkonst. It is part of a series of solos, which in their turn are part of the Chiron in Aries cycle, crafted specifically for the dancers who perform them. In this solo, Elise Brewer’s dance oscillate between fierceness and vulnerability, relentlessness and tenderness.
Since 2020, Frédéric Gies has been working on the 7-piece cycle Chiron in Aries. To that day, 4 pieces have already been created. Chiron in Aries takes for framework the astrology and mythology around the figure of the centaur Chiron, the wounded healer, who can also be seen as a queer mythological figure.
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dance: Elise Brewer
Music: Fiedel
Costume: Grzegorz Matlag
PRACTICAL INFO
Language: none (show followed by a discussion with the artist in English)
Note: the show contains loud music
Price: free
Dates & Times
Sat. 16 December 2023 - 19.00
Program
18.30: doors open
19.00: show
19.45: buffet + mingle with the artists
20:45: somatic party warm up & invisible inner rave
22.00: Party
Photography: Thomas Zamolo
ABOUT OUR GUEST ARTISTS
Rivet
Photo: Dimitrios Bizios
Hinted at by his work as the body music enthusiast behind Kess Kill record label and the years honing his production skills first as Grovskopa and then as Rivet, his current sound has a sophisticated slink and a surprisingly accessible twist of pop, while still recognizable in its dance music lineage.
While the album signaled a change of sound, it also prompted him to premiere his brand new live set at the 2021 edition of Intonal Festival in his hometown of Malmö – alongside the gorgeous spectacle of shibari rope artist Ziggi Willpower – adding another dimension to the Rivet story. He's already known for his wild and borderless DJ sets, where he's played the most hallowed clubs around the world with fierce intentions and rare skill, on more decks than he has hands. He juggles, cuts, drops and chops at an alarming rate, but crucially never to the detriment of overall flow – Rivet is a passionate and driving spirit in the art of mixing, whether it's in service to the sweatiest dancefloors or more thoughtful and experimental in form.
Elise Brewer
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Elise Brewer works as a freelance dancer and is currently based in-between Stockholm and Sätaröd, Sweden. She holds a BA in Dance and Performance from Stockholm University of the Arts (2012-2015).
Her artistic work and practice consists of a hybrid of doing, thinking, reading, writing and discussing and takes shape through collaborations with other artists and through the development of her own projects. Her own work often takes place in public urban spaces where the interest lies in investigating performative aspects of those specific sites to give resonance to the multitude of desires, values and needs that they hold and that could unfold. She is currently studying the post-master course Tusen kulturhus at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Together with choreographer Sanna Blennow she is part of the duo Brewer & Blennow. Their work often takes place at public libraries.
Elise has ongoing long term collaborations together with choreographer Malin Elgán and choreographer Frédéric Gies.
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Penumbral Dances
Penumbral Dances
Penumbral dances is a dance performance by Frédéric Gies, for one spectator at a time. It was created in December 2020 at Frank Galleri, during the first winter of the COVID 19 pandemic, under the title Penumbral dances – public service. It was created as a replacement for Unclouded dances, another one-to-one performance, which couldn’t take place for safety reasons at that time, as it would have meant that Frédéric would have met more 40 people in the same week, in a small confined space. Instead of cancelling completely the event, which would have been inconceivable for Frédéric as they surely don’t believe that dance is non-essential, they created this dance, which took place outdoor, at the entrance of the gallery.
This December, Frédéric proposes you again this dance, indoor this time. This dance will be crafted on the spot, especially for you, like a haute-couture dance, and will accompany you, we hope, through the beginning of this winter.
Concept & dance: Frédéric Gies
Music: Fiedel
Duration: 30 min.
Age restriction: 18+
Price: free
Dates & Times:
1/12, 2/12, 3/12, 4/12, 5/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12 & 12/12
5 times a day. Specific times available on the booking page.
Important: Booking is necessary!
Only 1 spectator per time slot.
Last booking accepted: 19.00 the day before each performance.
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
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#TWO
#TWO (A dance after a dance after another dance - 2023)
For the second iteration of the series “A dance after adance after another dance – 2023”, Maison de la danse temporarily moves out from Ungdomens Hus and settles for an evening at Skånes konstförening. “A dance after a dance after another dance – 2023” is a dance performance series, in which we offer a programme of shorter dances and performances, old or brand new, which together constitute a full evening programme. They are excerpts of longer works from our repertoire, remixes, works-in progress or short pieces created for the occasion. We present them in a stripped down way and intimate setting, doing away with the whole theater apparatus, in order to make the dance appear in the most direct and lively way. It also puts the dancers and their artistry at the center of the programme.
For #TWO, Frédéric Gies has prepared a special programme, which consist of a navigation between what could be consider as their classics and the forgotten corners of their work, in a poetic yet humorous journey.
Dance & Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Music: Fiedel
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
PRACTICAL INFO
Dates & Times
Wedn. 22 November 2023 - 19.00
Programme
19.00: show
20.00: discussion with the artist and Skånes Konstförening
Place
Skånes Konstförening,
Bragegatan 15,
214 30 Malmö
Price: free
Language: none
Age restriction: for all
Note: the show contains loud music
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
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Maison Ouverte (Open House)
Maison Ouverte (Open House)
On November 18 and 19, Maison de la Danse’s doors are wide open!
During the two days of Maison Ouverte, not only we open our doors to you and invite you to dive into our work from different angles (watching us perform for you, dancing with us or watching us rehearse) but we also open our doors to other artists, whose work you will be able to witness as well. For the first edition of Maison Ouverte, we invite Malmö based Elise Brewer, who is also part of Dance is ancient’s team and Anna Pehrson, who is currently in residence at MARC. On day 2, we will also have the pleasure to welcome Ulf Eriksson, in collaboration with Kontra Musik, who will DJ for our technosomatics session.
You are free to make your own programme, come whenever and come and go as you wish (please not that for the technosomatics session, doors will close after the start of the workshop). If you choose to stay for long: there will be some snacks!
Dates & Times
Sat. 18 November 2023 from 14.00 to 22.00
Sun. 19 November 2023 from 11.00 to 19.00
Note: Activities and performances all weekend: come and go as you wish. Detailed schedule below.
Price: free
DETAILED PROGRAMME
Day 1: Saturday Nov. 18
14.00 · Open training with Dance is ancient’s team
Frédéric Gies will give a dance class, open to all levels (even if you don’t have any dance practice, that is possible), which combines a technique class (with a couple of ballet elements) and a somatic approach of movement. It is all about developing bodily awareness, effortlessness and ease in movement, not about looking good in relation to an impossible ideal.
15.00 · Open rehearsals
Dance is ancient’s team invites you to witness their rehearsal process and dive into the meticulous work of preparing for showing a dance to a public.
16.00 · Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient’s dances #1
We have compiled for you a programme of dances from our repertoire, which we will present in their original form or remix in unexpected way. It will be a different programme of dances each time we will do it during the weekend. Except voluptuous, bold and queer dances, to infectious techno beats!
Dances choreographed by Frédéric Gies / Danced by Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness and Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
16.30 · Anna Pehrsson presents Excavation Series I
In the first part of three, Excavation Series I, Choreographer and Dancer Anna Pehrsson, sources movement as mass - hot liquid rock lurking around the corner - a comet’s tail blasting through the skies - or a thin layer of evaporated water reaching the pores.
Choreography and Dance: Anna Pehrsson / Music: Alva Noto
17.30 · Elise Brewer presents You might plant a rose bush under your bedroom window
You might plant a rose bush under your bedroom window is a walk through the landscape of bushes and railway tracks. A sequence of desires and needs unfolding alongside the trail. A dance of repetitive riffs that hits tenderly.
Dance & choreography: Elise Brewer
18.30 · Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient’s dances #2
In Dance is ancient dances Dances is ancient dances, we compiled for you a programme of dances from our repertoire, which we will present in their original form or remix in unexpected way. It will be a different programme of dances each time we will do it during the weekend. Except voluptuous, bold and queer dances, to infectious techno beats!
Dances choreographed by Frédéric Gies / Danced by Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness and Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
19.00 · Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient’s dances #3
In Dance is ancient dances Dances is ancient dances, we compiled for you a programme of dances from our repertoire, which we will present in their original form or remix in unexpected way. It will be a different programme of dances each time we will do it during the weekend. Except voluptuous, bold and queer dances, to infectious techno beats!
Dances choreographed by Frédéric Gies / Danced by Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness and Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Please note: Due to a last minute contretemps, Alma Söderberg's performance originally planned at 19.00 had to be cancelled. Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient's dance #3 will therefore start at 19.00 instead and is extended into a 2-hour program of dance, covering 10 years of work and various collaborations! Opening unexpected doors for the future and joyfully and too briefly inviting you into what dance and dancing can encompass, as the poetry of movement, as a labour, as a speech, as a train of thought, as a point of view, as a meaning, as a feeling, as a sensation, as a political stand…
21.00 · After work
You are invited to mingle, meet and talk with us
Doors close at 22.00
Day 2: Sunday Nov. 19
11.00 · Open training with Dance is Ancient’s team
Frédéric Gies will give a dance class, open to all levels (even if you don’t have any dance practice, that is possible), which combines a technique class (with a couple of ballet elements) and a somatic approach of movement. It is all about developing bodily awareness, effortlessness and ease in movement, not about looking good in relation to an impossible ideal.
12.00 · Open rehearsals
Dance is ancient team invites you to witness their rehearsal process and dive into the meticulous work of preparing for showing a dance to a public.
13.00 · Techno lunch
Skip food, come to our dance floor and dance!
14.00 · Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient’s dances #4
In Dance is ancient dances Dances is ancient dances, we compiled for you a programme of dances from our repertoire, which we will present in their original form or remix in unexpected way. It will be a different programme of dances each time we will do it during the weekend. Except voluptuous, bold and queer dances, to infectious techno beats!
Dances choreographed by Frédéric Gies / Danced by Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness and Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
15.00 · Technosomatics Live
Technosomatics is Frédéric Gies’ movement practice. It is toured internationally in festivals and dance theaters and shared with dance students and professionals around the world. Frédéric Gies and Elise Brewer will guide you through a 3-hour Technosomatics workshop, which will culminate with a one hour session with Ulf Eriksson DJing for us. This live session is organized in collaboration with Kontra-musik.
18.00 · After work
You are invited to mingle, meet and talk with us
Doors close at 19.00
Photography: Thomas Zamolo
ABOUT OUR GUEST ARTISTS
Anna Pehrsson
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Anna Pehrsson, born in Boliden, Sweden, is a dancer and choreographer working in the intersection of dance, choreography and visual arts. She has danced with Alias Compagnie, Corpus/ Royal Danish Ballet, and Cullbergbaletten, and has since her debut as a choreographer in 2016, created a wide range of works for stage and art galleries, as well as a number of commissioned works. Pehrsson is one of Weld's associate choreographers, and has an MFA in Choreography from DOCH and a post master accreditation from KKH. Since her debut at Tjörnedala Konsthall in 2021, she is also active as a visual artist. During 2023, she participates as a choreographer and dancer in the EU project Rail2Dance and develops the site-specific project Danser för Bruket in collaboration with Region Uppsala. www.annapehrsson.com
Alma Söderberg - cancelled
Alma Söderberg is a choreographer and performer that works with music and dance. She uses her voice and body to play space as if it was an instrument. Her ongoing research deals with how we listen as we look; the relation between the ear and the eye. She has grounded her practice in a number of solo performances, Deep Etude, Nadita en more. She has also created the trio Entangled phrases and made two pieces for the dance company Cullberg. She has an ongoing collaboration with sound artist deHendrik lechat Willekens and has made a film, La mano que canta, together with visual artist Alex Reynolds.
Elise Brewer
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Elise Brewer works as a freelance dancer and is currently based in-between Stockholm and Sätaröd, Sweden. She holds a BA in Dance and Performance from Stockholm University of the Arts (2012-2015).
Her artistic work and practice consists of a hybrid of doing, thinking, reading, writing and discussing and takes shape through collaborations with other artists and through the development of her own projects. Her own work often takes place in public urban spaces where the interest lies in investigating performative aspects of those specific sites to give resonance to the multitude of desires, values and needs that they hold and that could unfold. She is currently studying the post-master course Tusen kulturhus at The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. Together with choreographer Sanna Blennow she is part of the duo Brewer & Blennow. Their work often takes place at public libraries.
Elise has ongoing long term collaborations together with choreographer Malin Elgán and choreographer Frédéric Gies.
Disa Krosness
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Disa is educated at The Danish National School of Performing Arts but is now based in Stockholm. She has worked as freelance dancer, choreographer and producer since 2011 and is now expanding into social work at Marie Cederschiölds Högskola. Disa has worked with contemporary dance, opera, theatre, dance theatre and more. She has been part of many different constellations, amongst others Weld Company 2015-2022. She performed in Barricades and Legacies, Tribute and Warriors.
Ulf Eriksson
Eriksson runs Kontra-Musik, a techno label based in Malmö, Sweden’s southernmost city. Eriksson was a musician and DJ long before launching the label in 2006, and is getting well-deserved recognition as Kontra’s profile continues to rise.
Kontra’s carefully curated catalogue and divergent aesthetic is having an increasingly significant influence on electronic music internationally. Kontra Musik is a label that fully embrace today’s radically open aesthetic. Its artists include: Frak, Mokira, Jonsson/Alter, Jason Fine, Rivet, and more. A labour of love, the label has flourished and boosted the profile of all the artists involved including Eriksson himself. Eriksson has recently become more visible as a DJ outside Sweden, holding many live dates. His dj-set is a reflection of the label output, blending styles with ease, mixing with personality and an open mind. Ulf also has several mixes out on respected mixes on curated podcast series’ including Modyfier (2011), mnml ssgs (2011), Smoke Machine (2012) and RBMA.
www.kontra-musik.com
Ulf Eriksson. Photo: Camilla Rehnstrand
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#ONE
#ONE (A dance after a dance after another dance - 2023)
This dance performance evening is the first of the series “A dance after a dance after another dance – 2023” that will unfold during this fall. In this series, we offer a programme of shorter dances and performances, old or brand new, which together constitute a full evening programme. They are excerpts of longer works from our repertoire, remixes, works-in progress or short pieces created for the occasion. We present them in a stripped down way and intimate setting, doing away with the whole theater apparatus, in order to make the dance appear in the most direct and lively way. It also puts the dancers and their artistry at the center of the programme.
For #ONE, Dance is ancient invites collaborator Andreas Haglund to present his own work in the shape of a work in progress of his up-coming solo. Declan Whitaker and Frédéric Gies will also dance bold, relentless and voluptuous dances extracted from the Chiron in Aries cycle by Frédéric Gies, to the exhilarating beats by Fiedel. The performances will be followed by a discussion with the artists.
PROGRAMME
Many Wild Times by Andreas Haglund
Many Wild Times. Original Photography: Benedicte Ramfjord
Many Wild Times’ is a choreographic project by Andreas Haglund. In it they investigates the overlaps between hetereocis-normative sociability and climate collapse. Through staging methods that propose queer access to time and how dance can distort the binary of nature and culture. The work consists of dances that stretch and songs that loop and Andreas uses ‘Many Wild Times’ to investigate methods to rewild dance & choreography.
Inspired by Queer theorist Jack Halberstam and Climate theorist Andreas Malm (amongst others), he learned the ways in which Queer lives are determined as degenerate and ‘against nature’. Andreas investigates how this pequeerliar social position can be an (ad)vantage point for reformulating human relations to nature. What is regenerative about the degenerates? How can dance tease regenerative practices from the body?
Dance & choreography: Andreas Haglund
Excerpts and remixes from Chiron in Aries’ cycle by Frédéric Gies
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Since 2020, Frédéric Gies has been working on the 7-piece cycle Chiron in Aries. To that day, 4 pieces have already been created. Chiron in Aries takes for framework the astrology and mythology around the figure of the centaur Chiron, the wounded healer, who can also be seen as a queer mythological figure.
Selected duos and solos from the pieces are be presented on the original music by Fiedel, but also uniquely revisited with group dances danced as solos and/or solos as duos. The Spring edition revisited Brittanie Brown and Elisa Brewer’s solos. It is now time to rediscover the cycle through the prism of dancers Declan Whitaker and Frédéric Gies.
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dance: Frédéric Gies & Declan Whitaker
Music: Fiedel
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
PRACTICAL INFO
Language: none
Note: the show contains loud music
Price: free
Dates & Times
Fri. 10 November 2023 - 19.00
Sat. 11 November 2023 - 19.00
Program
18.30: Doors open
19.00: Show
20.00: Discussion with the artists (in English)
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
About Andreas Haglund
Andreas works as a freelance dancer and performer and choreographer. He has a BA in Dance and choreography from The Danish National School of Performing Arts. He is a member of Dance Cooperative; a new platform, dance studio and place for intersectional practice and performances in Copenhagen. Andreas has, among other things, worked with choreographers such as Jules Fischer, Andros Zins-Browne, Ágnes Grélinger, Thjerza Balaj, Paolo Gile, Stina Ehn, Antonia Harke and Denise Lim. Andreas performed in several Chiron in Aries’ pieces: Hope, Barricades and Legacies, Constellations and Alliances. He will also collaborate on the future opus of the cycle.
About Declan Whitaker
Declan is a dancer and choreographer based in Switzerland. His artistic interest lies with aesthetic conventions and the border between fantasy and reality. As a performer he has worked with Meg Stuart, Isabel Lewis, Simone Aughterlony and Martin Forsberg amongst others. Declan is a part of The Field, the associated collective at Tanzhaus Zürich. He holds a Master’s degree from London Contemporary Dance School and in 2019 received the danceWEB scholarship at ImPulsTanz. In 2023, Declan was part of Springback Academy in the frame of Aerowaves.
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Open Classes
Open Classes
Participate in our dancers’ daily training. The class is led by choreographer Frédéric Gies and will be taken together with the dancers rehearsing for Maison de La Danse’s performance programme as well as for next year’s new creation. All exercises can be followed at your own rhythm.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet.
Age Restriction: Adults (from 16 yo).
Levels: All levels
Language: English.
SCHEDULE FALL 2023
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Wednesday 8th November 2023
10.15-11.30 - Sal 12 at Ungdomens Hus (access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the courtyard: first door to the left, go up the stairs, first floor.)
Wednesday 15th November 2023
10.15-11.30 - Sal 12 at Ungdomens Hus (access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the courtyard: first door to the left, go up the stairs, first floor.)
Please let us know if you need to cancel or if there is a day you can't make it via danceisancient@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.ACCESSIBILITY
Technosomatics Workshops
Technosomatics workshops
Frédéric Gies’ movement practice is toured internationally in festivals and dance theaters and shared with dance students and professionals around the world. In the frame of La Maison de la Danse, we offer technosomatics workshops for all levels, free of charge. Dance at your own rhythm: you can either sign up to single sessions and let go of the week’s pressure or sign up to several sessions in order to take the most of the practice and connect deeper with your own body and states of consciousness.
Price: Completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet.
Age Restriction: Adults (from 16 yo).
Language: English.
Note: the workshop includes loud music.
SCHEDULE FALL 2023
Photo: Begoña Solís / La Casa Encendida, 2021
Monday 6th November 2023
18.30-21.00 - Sal 11 at Ungdomens Hus (access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö (same entrance as Aktiv Ungdom). Once in the courtyard: first door to the right)
Monday 13th November 2023
18.30-21.00 - Sal 11 at Ungdomens Hus (access: access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö (same entrance as Aktiv Ungdom). Once in the courtyard: first door to the right)
Sunday 19th November 2023 (Live music session)
Time 15.00-18.00 - Festsalen at Ungdomens Hus (access: Norra Skolgatan 10B, first floor)
Monday 27th November 2023
18.30-21.00 - Sal 11 at Ungdomens Hus (access: access: Torpgatan 21, 211 52 Malmö (same entrance as Aktiv Ungdom). Once in the courtyard: first door to the right)
Please let us know if you need to cancel or if there is a day you can't make it via danceisancient@gmail.com so we can give your spot to someone else.ABOUT TECHNOSOMATICS
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. The practice is toured internationally and taught in various dance MA and MBA programs. Frédéric also animate regular free practices for all levels in Malmö in the frame of la Maison de la Danse.
Technosomatics consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centers) through club dancing to techno music as wells as the opposite: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions.
Drawing by Frédéric Gies
Frédéric Gies has teached the practice internationally to both professional dancers and the general audience. The practice has been shared in several dance BA and MA programmes as well as at diverse public manifestations such as Impulstanz (Vienna), Tanzkongress (Dresden), Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle (Warsaw), Art stations – Stary Browar (Poznan), Ponderosa (Germany), Weld (Stockholm), HZT (Berlin), Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Skogen (Gothenburg) etc. and has met its audience internationally.
ACCESSIBILITY
Jumelles
Jumelles
at Skogen, Göteborg
Duration: 70min
Dates & Times:
- Friday 6th October 2023, 19.00
- Saturday 7th October 2023, 19.00
- Sunday 8th October 2023, 17.00
Jumelles
by Anne Juren & Frédéric Gies
In French, Jumelles means both “(female) twins” and “binoculars”. In Jumelles, Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies take on the task of portraying one another in the form of two twin dancing portraits: one danced by Anne Juren and choreographed by Frédéric Gies and the other danced by Frédéric and choreographed by Anne. At the origin of this piece is the 18 years long story of artistic collaboration and friendship between the two artists. Their collaboration consisted of participating to research laboratories, collaborating within educational programmes (DanceWEB, MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH) and performing together. They witnessed each other paths within the dance field and accompanied each other both professionally and in their lives.
Anne and Frédéric respective choreographic works are rather different formally speaking. Yet, deep connections unite them. These connection find their origins in their love for dance and in the way this love grew through their early years within the dance field, as they were both meeting specific trends in post-modern, contemporary dance. Both artists also share a strong interest for the bodily origins of movement, which manifest in the integration of somatic practices in their work. This connects to the way they both emphasize embodiment, sensuality and the power of dance as a medium of expression. Furthermore, feminist and queer perspectives are constituent of their work.
Their recurrent collaborations, their paths within dance, their common interests and their personal bond have taken the shape of a continuous process of twinning and mutualisation, which underlies Jumelles. Through the act of portraying one another, they put a magnifying glass on this process and on the historicity of their dancing bodies. In these interlinked portraits, the place of the portrayed and the portraitist are interwoven. It opens up a vast field of gazes in which the gaze is a dynamic entity involving the bodies of the dancers, of the portraitists and of the viewers.
Credits:
Dance and choreography: Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies
Lighting design: Thomas Zamolo
Sound Design, Composition: Paul Kotal (Turf & Surf)
Techno by Fiedel - exploited by Turf & Surf
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Production management: Ambre Andriamanana (DIA), Magdalena Stolhofer (WTKB)
Produced by Dance is ancient and Wiener Tanz und Kunst Bewegung / Coproduced by Inkonst, Weld, Skogen and ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival / Residence support by MARC / with the support of The Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the city of Malmö, Stadt Wien Kultur and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Jumelles
Jumelles
at Inkonst, Malmö
Duration: 70min
Dates & Times:
- Friday 29th September 2023, 19.00
- Saturday 30th September 2023, 19.00
Jumelles
by Anne Juren & Frédéric Gies
In French, Jumelles means both “(female) twins” and “binoculars”. In Jumelles, Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies take on the task of portraying one another in the form of two twin dancing portraits: one danced by Anne Juren and choreographed by Frédéric Gies and the other danced by Frédéric and choreographed by Anne. At the origin of this piece is the 18 years long story of artistic collaboration and friendship between the two artists. Their collaboration consisted of participating to research laboratories, collaborating within educational programmes (DanceWEB, MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH) and performing together. They witnessed each other paths within the dance field and accompanied each other both professionally and in their lives.
Anne and Frédéric respective choreographic works are rather different formally speaking. Yet, deep connections unite them. These connection find their origins in their love for dance and in the way this love grew through their early years within the dance field, as they were both meeting specific trends in post-modern, contemporary dance. Both artists also share a strong interest for the bodily origins of movement, which manifest in the integration of somatic practices in their work. This connects to the way they both emphasize embodiment, sensuality and the power of dance as a medium of expression. Furthermore, feminist and queer perspectives are constituent of their work.
Their recurrent collaborations, their paths within dance, their common interests and their personal bond have taken the shape of a continuous process of twinning and mutualisation, which underlies Jumelles. Through the act of portraying one another, they put a magnifying glass on this process and on the historicity of their dancing bodies. In these interlinked portraits, the place of the portrayed and the portraitist are interwoven. It opens up a vast field of gazes in which the gaze is a dynamic entity involving the bodies of the dancers, of the portraitists and of the viewers.
Credits:
Dance and choreography: Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies
Lighting design: Thomas Zamolo
Sound Design, Composition: Paul Kotal (Turf & Surf)
Techno by Fiedel - exploited by Turf & Surf
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Production management: Ambre Andriamanana (DIA), Magdalena Stolhofer (WTKB)
Produced by Dance is ancient and Wiener Tanz und Kunst Bewegung / Coproduced by Inkonst, Weld, Skogen and ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival / Residence support by MARC / with the support of The Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the city of Malmö, Stadt Wien Kultur and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Jumelles - Swedish Premiere
Swedish Premiere of Jumelles
at Weld, Stockholm
Duration: 70min
Dates:
- 22nd Sept 2023, 19.00-20.30
- 23rd Sept 2023, 19.00-20.30
- 24th Sept 2023, 18.00-19.30
Jumelles
by Anne Juren & Frédéric Gies
In French, Jumelles means both “(female) twins” and “binoculars”. In Jumelles, Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies take on the task of portraying one another in the form of two twin dancing portraits: one danced by Anne Juren and choreographed by Frédéric Gies and the other danced by Frédéric and choreographed by Anne. At the origin of this piece is the 18 years long story of artistic collaboration and friendship between the two artists. Their collaboration consisted of participating to research laboratories, collaborating within educational programmes (DanceWEB, MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH) and performing together. They witnessed each other paths within the dance field and accompanied each other both professionally and in their lives.
Anne and Frédéric respective choreographic works are rather different formally speaking. Yet, deep connections unite them. These connection find their origins in their love for dance and in the way this love grew through their early years within the dance field, as they were both meeting specific trends in post-modern, contemporary dance. Both artists also share a strong interest for the bodily origins of movement, which manifest in the integration of somatic practices in their work. This connects to the way they both emphasize embodiment, sensuality and the power of dance as a medium of expression. Furthermore, feminist and queer perspectives are constituent of their work.
Their recurrent collaborations, their paths within dance, their common interests and their personal bond have taken the shape of a continuous process of twinning and mutualisation, which underlies Jumelles. Through the act of portraying one another, they put a magnifying glass on this process and on the historicity of their dancing bodies. In these interlinked portraits, the place of the portrayed and the portraitist are interwoven. It opens up a vast field of gazes in which the gaze is a dynamic entity involving the bodies of the dancers, of the portraitists and of the viewers.
Credits:
Dance and choreography: Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies
Lighting design: Thomas Zamolo
Sound Design, Composition: Paul Kotal (Turf & Surf)
Techno by Fiedel - exploited by Turf & Surf
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Production management: Ambre Andriamanana (DIA), Magdalena Stolhofer (WTKB)
Produced by Dance is ancient and Wiener Tanz und Kunst Bewegung / Coproduced by Inkonst, Weld, Skogen and ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival / Residence support by MARC / with the support of The Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the city of Malmö, Stadt Wien Kultur and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Ribbon Dance
Ribbon Dance
at Øyafestival
As part of Permament Collection Tøyen
Wednesday 9 August
Thursday 10 August
Friday 11 August
Saturday 12 August
Picture: Thomas Zamolo
Technosomatics Intensive
Technosomatics
- Intensive
The International Dance Festival ImPulsTanz invites Frédéric Gies to share their Technosomatics practice in an intensive workshop.
Dates & Times: 29/7/2023 + 30/7/2023, 12.10-14.40 + 17.30-20.00
Stage: Arsenal G
Technosomatics
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. It consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centres) through club dancing to techno music and vice versa: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. It is practised mostly with closed eyes, in a pitch-dark room. It emphasises the experiential body and explores alternative maps, which both match and deviate from the mainstream scientific map of the body. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions. The practice doesn’t require any specific background in dance.
Impulstanz - Vienna International Dance Festival
Founded in 1984, ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival has over the years evolved into the largest festival for contemporary dance and performance in the world. Every summer it presents a uniquely diverse programme of performances, workshops, research projects and musical acts. Read more
Technosomatics
Technosomatics
at Nonagon Festival
Date & Time: Friday 21st July, 15.30
Stage: Nona
Workshop leader: Elise Brewer
Picture by: Begoña Solís / La Casa Encendida, 2021 Technosomatics
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. It consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centres) through club dancing to techno music and vice versa: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. It is practised mostly with closed eyes, in a pitch-dark room. It emphasises the experiential body and explores alternative maps, which both match and deviate from the mainstream scientific map of the body. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions. The practice doesn’t require any specific background in dance.
Nonagon Festival
Nonagon is an art and music festival focused on experimental and audiovisual expressions. The festival takes place on July 21-22 in two decommissioned oil cisterns on Svanö Island, in Ådalen, Sweden. The cisterns have a unique reverberation time of up to 25 seconds, and inside visitors are met with echoing and spherical sounds. Artists collaborate in new constellations to create audiovisual pieces specifically designed for this unique space and time. The festival features a diverse program of audiovisual performances, art exhibition, DJs, workshops, and artist talks, presented on two stages and an art gallery.
The festival is funded by the Swedish Arts Council, Nordic Culture Point, Region Västernorrland, Kramfors Municipality, and the Ideell Kulturallians.
Jumelles - World Premiere
World Premiere of Jumelles
at Impulstanz
Duration: 70min
Date & Time:
- Monday 17th July 2023, 23.00
- Wednsday 19th July 2023, 23.00
Stage: Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz
Jumelles
by Anne Juren & Frédéric Gies
In French, Jumelles means both “(female) twins” and “binoculars”. In Jumelles, Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies take on the task of portraying one another in the form of two twin dancing portraits: one danced by Anne Juren and choreographed by Frédéric Gies and the other danced by Frédéric and choreographed by Anne. At the origin of this piece is the 18 years long story of artistic collaboration and friendship between the two artists. Their collaboration consisted of participating to research laboratories, collaborating within educational programmes (DanceWEB, MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH) and performing together. They witnessed each other paths within the dance field and accompanied each other both professionally and in their lives.
Anne and Frédéric respective choreographic works are rather different formally speaking. Yet, deep connections unite them. These connection find their origins in their love for dance and in the way this love grew through their early years within the dance field, as they were both meeting specific trends in post-modern, contemporary dance. Both artists also share a strong interest for the bodily origins of movement, which manifest in the integration of somatic practices in their work. This connects to the way they both emphasize embodiment, sensuality and the power of dance as a medium of expression. Furthermore, feminist and queer perspectives are constituent of their work.
Their recurrent collaborations, their paths within dance, their common interests and their personal bond have taken the shape of a continuous process of twinning and mutualisation, which underlies Jumelles. Through the act of portraying one another, they put a magnifying glass on this process and on the historicity of their dancing bodies. In these interlinked portraits, the place of the portrayed and the portraitist are interwoven. It opens up a vast field of gazes in which the gaze is a dynamic entity involving the bodies of the dancers, of the portraitists and of the viewers.
Credits:
Dance and choreography: Anne Juren and Frédéric Gies
Lighting design: Thomas Zamolo
Music and Sound design: Paul Kotal
Music: Fiedel
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Production management: Ambre Andriamanana (DIA), Magdalena Stolhofer (WTKB)
Produced by Dance is ancient and Wiener Tanz und Kunst Bewegung / Coproduced by Inkonst, Weld, Skogen and ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival / Residence support by MARC / with the support of The Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the city of Malmö, Stadt Wien Kultur and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Technosomatics Light
Technosomatics Light
Once in a while does not hurt! Frédéric Gies will share their Technosomatics practice in an outside setting, in day light, in the frame of ImPulsTanz’s Public Moves!
Date & Time: Friday 7th July 2023, 18.45-20.00
Place: MuseumsQuartier left side in front of the main entrance
Technosomatics
Technosomatics is a movement practice developed by Frédéric Gies who shares it in various workshop formats. It consists of a collective and individual exploration of the endocrine glands (the major chemical system of our body) and the chakras (energy centres) through club dancing to techno music and vice versa: an exploration of club dancing while embodying the endocrine glands and the chakras. It is practised mostly with closed eyes, in a pitch-dark room. It emphasises the experiential body and explores alternative maps, which both match and deviate from the mainstream scientific map of the body. The practice connects to both the field of somatics (movement education practices) and to techno club/rave dance cultures. It originates in Frédéric Gies’ encounters with diverse somatic practices, and in their dance floor experiences. As a form of meditation in movement, it explores trancelike states of consciousness and acknowledges the healing potential of the act of dancing. It also approaches club dance as a tool for self-discovery and for expanding the range of our perceptions. The practice doesn’t require any specific background in dance.
Impulstanz - Vienna International Dance Festival
Founded in 1984, ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival has over the years evolved into the largest festival for contemporary dance and performance in the world. Every summer it presents a uniquely diverse programme of performances, workshops, research projects and musical acts. Read more
Ribbon Dance - by young dancers
Ribbon Dance
- by young dancers
UPDATE: This show has been cancelled due to cancellation of the Youth workshop. We will come back during the Fall edition with a new format. Want to know more? Sign up to our interest list here.
Ribbon Dance is a manifestation of the drives and forces that set off bodies or things in movement and the movement potential to self-generate. Although it inevitably communicate something else, this celebratory dance doesn’t seek to communicate anything but itself and the subterraneous currents that traverse it. Presented in 2022 under the form of a solo, this edition will revisit it as a group piece performed by young dancers.
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Music: Fiedel
About the dancers
From 19th to 22nd June 2023, young dancers (13-18) of all levels will be invited to be part of Frédéric’s Gies creation process in a 4-day workshop around the piece Ribbon Dance from 2015. At the end of those 4 days, they will present their version of the piece.
Program
18.30: Doors open
19.00: Show
20.00: Hang out
Picture: Thomas Zamolo
Workshop 8-18
Workshop in cooperation with Malmö Fritisgårdarna
The choreographer Frédéric Gies draws inspiration from their previous training in ballet, their long career in contemporary dance and their dance floor experiences in techno clubs. They invites you to dance and discover their unique dance style through exercises and choreography from real dance works. You will dance to techno music and discover and create your own dance moves, inspired by different dance styles and imageries.
Age:8-18
Level: all levels
Price: free
Book your spot by contacting Malmö Fritidsgårdarna on their instagram.
Ribbon Dance Workshop, Age 13-18 (4 days)
Participate in Dance is Ancient's creation process during a few days! The work done will be presented at the end of the residency in front of an audience.
UPDATE: This workshop has been cancelled. We will come back during the Fall edition with a new format. Interested? Sign up to our interest list here.
The workshop will be based on Frédéric Gies’ performance Ribbon Dance (2015). Ribbon Dance is a celebration dance, a manifestation of the drives and forces that set off bodies or things in movement and the movement potential to self-generate. The performance has already be reviewed in several formats - solos like group pieces, and performed by professional dancers.
During the workshop, Frédéric Gies will share their practice and approach of dance with you and you will learn parts of the real performance. During four days, you will work closely with the choreographer and discover what it means to be part of a dance company with dancing on one of the key work of Frédéric Gies.
At the end of the workshop, you will present their work in the frame of Maison de la Danse.
Who: For all 13-18 yo curious about dancing
Age Restriction: from 13 to 18 yo
Level: All levels accepted
Fee: Completely free of charge
* All the workshops are completely free of charge thanks to the support of Malmö stad, Region Skåne and Kulturrådet.
Practice schedule
* Monday, June 19th 2023
10.00-13.00
* Tuesday, June 20th 2023
10.00-13.00
* Wednesday, June 21st 2023
10.00-13.00
* Thursday, June 22nd 2023
15.00-19.00 (Followed by a public presentation of the work at 19.00)
Place: Ungdomens Hus (Sal 11 and Festsalen), 10B Norra Skolgatan, 211 52 Malmö
IMPORTANT: By signing up to the workshop you commit to attend to all times & dates, including the public presentation.
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
Dance Concert #3
Dance Concert #3
- Brittanie & Frédéric
Penumbral dances + Constellations and Alliances + Barricades and Legacies
The Dance Concerts #1, #2 and #3 are specially created for this edition of La Maison de la Danse. In this series, Frédéric Gies compiled different programs of bold, tender and virtuosic dances extracted from our recent performances for the stage. Selected duos and solos from the pieces will be presented on the original music by Fiedel, but also uniquely revisited with group dances danced as solos and/or solos as duos. Excerpts from group dances will be presented in a unprecedented intimate setting, by 2 dancers.
In dance concert #3, Frédéric Gies will dance Penumbral Dances – Public Service, a performance that was created as replacement for Unclouded dances, made impossible to perform due to the covid-19 pandemic. Initially conceived as an outdoor performance for one spectator at a time, it will be presented here for first time indoor and for a larger audience. Brittanie Brown will dance her solo from Barricades and Legacies: Chiron in Aries, Recital #3 as well as her solo and a group dance from Constellation and Alliances: Chiron in Aries, Recital #4, which was originally created for Weld company extended and never presented in Malmö.
Since 2020, Frédéric Gies has been working on the 7-piece cycle Chiron in Aries. To that day, 4 pieces have already been created. Chiron in Aries takes for framework the astrology and mythology around the figure of the centaur Chiron, the wounded healer.
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dance: Brittanie Brown & Elise Brewer
Music: Fiedel
Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag
Dates & Times
Fri. 16 June 2023 - 19.00
Program
18.30: Doors open
19.00: Show
20.00: Discussion with the artists
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
About Brittanie Brown
Brittanie is currently a freelancer who received her B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School in 2011 after being named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2007. Throughout the years, she has performed original works by Alexander Ekman, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Christopher Roman, Stijn Celis and Victor Quijada. Brittanie has worked with companies such as the GöteborgsOperans DansKompani, Skånes Dansteater, Norrdans and Corpus.