Feb 16+17. Weld Extended at Dansens Hus
Weld Extended is an extension of the Weld Company project. It brings together dancers and choreographers of different ages and experiences in a joint exploration. The premiere of Chiron in Aries, Recital #4 at Dansens Hus is the continuation of a series of dances previously presented at Weld with Frédéric Gies’ own ensemble. This time, instead, a new constellation of dance artists, both new and familiar and within the framework of Weld Extended, form the ensemble.
February 16 at 7pm
February 17 at 7pm
Elverket
Linnégatan 69
Tickets via Dansens Hus
Premiere party with DJ Fiedel in the foyer after the performance on February 16.
Conversation with the audience in the foyer on February 17.
Ask your questions to the group!
Participants: Frédéric Gies, Anna Koch, Elise Brewer, Brittanie Brown, Gergo D.Farkas, Nefeli Gioti, Andreas Haglund, Maria Naidu, Anna Pehrsson
The choreography Constellations and alliances: Chiron in Aries, Recital #4 invites you into a world where dance could come from an imaginary past or an imaginary future. The dances have been composed as if they were folk, ritual dances and play with different constellations in transformation. The wild unruly and the soft are intertwined. The piece invents its own mythology. What constellations and alliances bring us together today? Can alliances and constellations change, give us hope and build bridges? Gie’s choreographies lie right on the edge where old and new rub against each other. What emerges in this friction?
The piece is the fourth chapter in the Chiron in Aries dance cycle, which refers to Greek mythology and its absorption of astrology following Warriors: Chiron in Aries, Recital #1 (2020) and Hope: Chiron in Aries, Recital #2 (2021) and Barricades and Legacies: Chiron in Aries, Recital #3 (2022)
In Greek mythology, Chiron was a centaur raised by Apollo, who initiated him into the arts of healing, music and prophecy, making him different from the other violent and unruly centaurs. When he was hit by a poisoned arrow, he received a wound that never healed. In astrology, the minor planet Chiron is called the ”wounded healer” and represents our deepest wounds and our ability to heal.
Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dance: Elise Brewer, Brittanie Brown, Gergo D.Farkas, Nefeli Gioti, Andreas Haglund, Maria Naidu, Anna Pehrsson.
Music: Fiedel
Lighting design: Thomas Zamolo
Costume design: Grzegorz Matlag
Production: Weld in collaboration with Dance is ancient
Co-production: Dansens Hus
Supported by the Swedish Arts Council, Stockholms stad and Region Stockholm
Weld Extended
is an extension of Weld’s Weld Company project, which started in 2013 as an institutional critique to find new ways for a dance company to operate and develop together. The experimental project has been working on what shapes dance and choreography as a field; knowledge transfer, traditions, history and development. Young and established choreographers have been invited to create new choreographic works, in close collaboration with the company’s dancers. Dancers of a wide age range have explored what a dance company can be today, in the encounter with materials, aesthetics, concepts, choreographers and contexts, but also how to negotiate the respective differences of all, while supporting and developing the individual dancer/choreographer to strengthen a community and respective professional role. With both short and longer choreographic processes to finished performances in smaller and larger formats, a number of dancers of different ages, knowledge and experience have worked together with Swedish and international choreographers on Swedish and international stages. After 10 years of operation, the project is now under review. At the moment it is Weld Extended that is taking the project forward.
FRÉDÉRIC GIES (SE/FR)
is a dancer and choreographer based in Sweden. Alternating between clockwork composition and the intense chaos generated by dancing bodies surrendering to the desires and forces that permeate them, Frédéric Gies’ pieces give dance the ability to speak without needing to demonstrate or represent. Drawing on his previous training in ballet, encounters with specific trends in contemporary dance in the 1990s, dance floor experiences at techno clubs and raves, and their study of somatic practices, Gies approaches form as possibilities rather than constraints. Thier work addresses politics in a non-representational way; bodies as instigators of movement do not reinforce identities but instead excavate layers of complexity. Frédéric Gies’ work is also closely linked to techno music. He has developed the practice Technosomatics, which proposes a somatic approach to club dancing.
Frédéric Gies has been working as a choreographer since 1996, first based in France then Germany and in recent years; Sweden. Their work is presented locally, nationally and internationally in traditional venues, as well as in clubs, music festivals and museums. During their career, their work has been shown in 19 different countries. Gies began her career as a dancer in the early 90s in France. They danced for choreographers such as Daniel Larrieu, Olivia Grandville, Jean-François Duroure, Odile Duboc, Bernard Glandier and Christophe Haleb. It was also in France that they began to create own choreographic works, first in collaboration with others and then as a solo artist. They has also danced in works by, for example. Cristina Caprioli, Jefta van Dinther, Alice Chauchat, Isabelle Schad and Antonija Livingstone. Throughout their career they has also choreographed works for others such as. Weld and DDSKS. And in 2021, Gies has created an original work for Corpus.
FIEDEL (DE)
Fiedel is no average techno or house DJ. His sets build something new, while capturing the moment. Whether straight techno, banging 80’s acid or electro funk: he always surprises.
Born and raised in Brandenburg, he finds access to the music through various artists and styles in the mid 1980s. He was influenced by artists of the old school hip hop like Mantronix and Egyptian Lover and the early works of Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk. A very important influence was Monika Dietl’s radio show at Radio 4U in West-Berlin. Her show aroused the fascination and the longing for musical freedom and diversity, that was not possible in former Eastern Germany. Those impressions gave him a first feeling, a first vision of what should become alive later on.
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. 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.
ANNA PEHRSSON (SE)
born in Boliden, Sweden, is a dancer and choreographer active in the intersection of dance, choreography and visual arts. She has danced with Alias Compagnie, Corpus/ Royal Danish Ballet, and Cullberg Ballet, She has made her debut as a choreographer in 2016, has created a wide range of works for Dansens hus, Weld, MDT, Bonniers Konsthall, Uppsala Konstmuseum, as well as a number of commissioned works nationally and internationally. Pehrsson is one of Weld’s associate choreographers, holds an MFA in choreography from DOCH and a post master accreditation from KKH. Since her debut in 2021 at Tjörnedala Konsthall, she is also active as a visual artist. In 2023 she will participate as choreographer and dancer in the EU project Rail2Dance and develop the site-specific project Dances for the Factory in collaboration with Region Uppsala.
GERGO D. FARKAS (HU/SE)
Being lost in Stockholm, Budapest or somewhere in between, Gergo D. Farkas (they/them, ‘96, libra, HU) is into choreographing, dancing, performing and organizing, but mostly into choreographing. They dream about spaces where (non)humans and (im)material are equally super welcome to dance. Sometimes (actually, quite often), Gergo relates to dance as a hyperobject. Currently, they are a resident artist of Performing Gender and tour their piece Deep Fake as a part of the Aerowaves Twenty22
NEFELI GIOTI (GR/SE)
is a choreographer, dancer and dance researcher. She graduated from Environmental Sciences at the Aegean University, studied contemporary dance practices at Tanzfabrik in Berlin and finished the Ma in Choreography at the Dance Department at SKH in Stockholm. She has been collaborating with Frederic Gies, Ivana Müller, Snorre Elvin, Kallia Kefala, Argyro Chioti, Xenia Kohilaki and Willi Dorner among others. She has been making her own choreographic works since 2017 and has been working in Stockholm, Athens and Berlin the last few years.
BRITTANIE BROWN (US/SE)
received her B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School in May 2011. She began her formal dance training at the age of 12 at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. Graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas – by 2007, Brittanie was a Silver Award 2007 YoungArts winner in modern dance and a Texas Young Master recognized by the Texas Commission on the Arts. In the same year, Brittanie was also named Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Throughout the years, she has performed original works by Alexander Ekman, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Robert Battle, Stijn Celis and Victor Quijada. Brittanie has been honored to dance in companies such as Company XIV (Austin McCormick), Abraham.In.Motion (Kyle Abraham), the GöteborgsOperans DansKompani, Skånes Dansteater and Norrdans. Brittanie has been a freelancer since 2019.
ANDREAS HAGLUND (SE)
works as a freelance dancer, performer and choreographer in and around Stockholm and Copenhagen. He is an active member of Dance Cooperative; a dance studio and venue for intersectional practice and performance organised by 16 artists in Copenhagen. Through this framework he has facilitated several performance events, presenting both his own works and collaborations as well as hosting other artists and their works. Andreas has many hobbies.
MARIA NAIDU (SE)
made her debut as a dancer in 1987 and as a choreographer two years later with the piece The Philosopher. Over the years, her work has been performed in fourteen countries on five continents. She trained at the Baletta Academy in Gothenburg and at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center in New York City, where she lived and worked for thirteen years. For eight of these she collaborated with the pioneering choreographer Jennifer Muller, and she is the only Swedish dancer so far to have been permanently employed by her company Jennifer Muller/THE WORKS. Her choreographic language is characterised by a diversity of textures (i.e. movement qualities and nuances), theatrical details and subtle humour. In recent years Maria has performed works by Stina Nyberg, Viktor Fröjd, Marie Fahlin and appeared in Den yttersta minuten by Mattias Andersson, Cabarét directed by Farnaz Arbabi and Liv , Död, Sex, Pop by Tove Sahlin at Dramaten.
ELISE BREWER (SE)
works in the field of contemporary dance and choreography, based in Malmö. Her work with dance involves a hybrid of making, thinking, reading, writing and discussing and often takes shape through collaborations with other artists. Together with choreographer Sanna Blennow she forms the duo Brewer & Blennow. Their work has been featured in public libraries in recent years. Elise holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance and Performance from Stockholm School of the Arts. She works continuously with choreographer Malin Elgán (SE) and has developed her collaboration with Frédéric Gies (SE/FR) in recent years.
Weld is supported by Stockholms stad, the Swedish Arts Council and Region Stockholm