“Cath, who is in a wheelchair, and Malene, who is missing a hand, create magic and beauty together when they meet in dance. Malene has been dancing since she was 18 and her dream of becoming a professional dancer grew so big that she applied to dance schools around the world. But can they ignore the fact that Malene is missing a hand?”
Anew was created from footage from 'Where do we go from here?
“Anew” was created from footage from the association’s first major performance “Where do we go from here?”, which was created due to the 10th anniversary of the pioneering work.
The performance was a one-hour presentation of integrated dance, including 10 performers, a soundscape and a common audience costume.
a house artist program in collaboration with Klub Levuk in Hillerød
Klub Levuk’s Theater & Music Line has in collaboration with the Association for Integrated Modern Dance in Denmark (FIMD) by Janne Weidinger and Costume Designer & Textile Facilitator Line Lund Bak, developed the performance “Sanse, Danse… -a human being comes into being”.
The performance is part of a house artist project under the Danish Arts Foundation, where the house artists at Levuk, Line and Janne, since August 2024, have danced, played, sensed, and learned about textiles and their creation twice a week with Levuk’s theater and music team. This has resulted in an aesthetically beautiful, sensuous and touching performance with the young people on stage.
In the course, the students have helped create parts of the costumes, set design, sound and dance that can be experienced in the performance. Through the collaboration, we have expanded the young people’s understanding of what dance is and how to use textiles as a creative element.
We thank you for a great collaboration!
Video by Steinunn H. Thorsteinsdottir:
Testimonial:
“We experienced an overwhelmingly sensory performance with fine lighting, beautiful costumes and a fantastic scenery. A fantastic and professionally executed performance, which has been set up in a relatively short time with great understanding of our young people’s different challenges.
The young people showed great commitment and contributed each especially based on their individual abilities, which created room for everyone’s challenges. It was It was touching to experience the strong sense of cohesion in the group.
The performance touched us deeply and gave us as parents of Jens an insight into a maturity and confidence that we haven’t previously seen in him in the same way. Jens has been very engaged – talked a lot about the preparations and dental appointments etc. several times to allow him to participate in tests and classes.
He has exceeded his limits with a huge victory. He is proud and very happy to have participated and dares to believe in himself more and more with the victories he gets. We are still talks about the good experience with him.
We are very impressed and happy with the experience we have all had and hope that others will have the opportunity to experience something similar.”
The project was supported by:
Danish Arts Foundation, Klub Levuk, Hillerød Municipality, Saks Potts, Magnetz and Bamboo
Paulina Rewucka, in collaboration with Sissel & Janne Weidinger
Music designer:
Dave Black
This work is about chosen solitude and feelings which occur in the realm between a child and becoming a grown up. It is an attempt to approach the rollercoaster of a lifetime.
“Number 1 girl.
The pump is out of order.
These hands are made for walking.
Is there anything you would wanna say to your surroundings or to the world if you would have space and they would listen?
No matter what you’re going through, it’s gonna get better at some point. Well… we’ve all gone through something tough before but you will find your way again.
What do you say when I say fan-club?
K-pop. Korea…
…here I come!
Stay yourself. Don’t care too much what other people say. Don’t change for other people.”
Welcome to the Normal People party - a swing with power structures
Welcome to the Normal People party – a swing with power structures
Facts
Welcome to the Normal People's Party:
IDE/FIMD's first performing arts performance
Background for the performance
IDE has investigated the historical echoes of how people with disabilities have been excluded from and shunned by society over time. The performance stages the way we interact with people who deviate from the norm, highlighting how we all carry the historical burden.
Testimonial:
“Welcome to the normal people’s party is a touching story that through dance gives insight into some of the personal struggles one can face in the realization of living with a disability.” Signe Daugaard
The performance was produced in 2014-15 with dancers: Cath Borch Jensen & Annika Kompart, and was restaged in 2020 with Josefine Bjørklund & Clara Wärme
Line and Thea are both young women in their 20s who have found joy and each other through dance. Line lives with Down syndrome and the two met through the Association for Integrated Modern Dance, which aims to create spaces and dance communities for people with and without different physical abilities.
The performance highlights how dance can be an important and safe outlet for self-expression and acceptance of those who deviate from the norm – in one way or another. Those who deviate from the normative body, the normative mind.
And what we can all learn by making room on the dance floor for those who are not normally invited onto it.
In a relationship between an able-bodied person and someone with a visible disability, there is usually a clear expectation of who is providing care and who is receiving it. But in dance, we meet and exchange it as equals.
Testimonial:
“In August 2024, a small group of young people from Levuk went to Christians Havns Torv to experience the dance performance Holding the Line, where Line, who attends Levuk club, together with her dance partner and companion Thea showed how dance and movement can embody the story of your own identity.
We also saw how a relationship between two people can be communicated non-verbally to an audience. The performance was both touching and funny. With Line and Thea’s powerful and talented expressions, we got caught up in seeing who they were individually and together. The strong bond between the two dancers became clear to us as an audience.
At the end of the performance, we were invited to the floor where we were all connected with some amazing sweaters with very long sleeves, keeping us together in groups that could influence each other’s movements. It was hard to stop again, because it was as if what we had experienced between Line and Thea had spread like ripples in the water; in dance there is room for all of us and we are created in relationship with others. Thank you for a powerful experience!” Lotte Skovdal, Theater educator at Levuk
Bjarke Østergaard (People Like Us) & Cath Borch Jensen, Lisa Dahlkild, Bettina Stoholm, Malene Becker (FIMD)
Choreographer:
Janne Weidinger Kristensen
music:
Gotan Project - Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)
MangoTango (duration 7,5 min)
A fusion between modern dance and Tango, in collaboration between FIMD and Mikrobryggeriet PeopleLikeUs (PLU)’
The performance was shown 5 times; in Dansekapellet and at Friday Night Sharing, at Folkemødet on Bornholm for DUOS and PLU and at the opening of a Mikkeler branch in Kødbyen
Where do we go from here? -is a performance that makes room for the bodies that stand out from the body we normally see on stage and in society, and gives the audience an experience of what it is really like to live with a limited body.
About the show: Where do we go from here? led the audience on a physical walk in an audience costume where the audience was tied together. The audience started at Bispebjerg Cemetery and wandered through Dansekapellet, where studios and corners of the house take the form of personal stories from performers, many of whom live with a disability.
Where do we go from here? gives those we don’t normally see and hear on stage space, room and narrative time, and the audience is put in a limiting situation while touching on topics that for many people can be uncomfortable.
Where do we go from here? -is a socially critical dance performance from those who are not normally welcome on stage.
Throughout the traveling performance, the audience got insight into the personal stories of the dancers; Bettina who fell off a horse in her mid-20s and was revived, Sandie who is plus-size and takes up more than one seat on the bus, Lisa who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for 25 years, which has suddenly been put on hold. What they all have in common is that being able to express and develop themselves through dance has had a huge impact. Lisa attributes her recovery to dancing and persistent training.
These are just some of the stories we will tell through the dance performance Where do we go from here – and which will help open up the bodies and stories you can see and experience in Danish performing arts.
The performance took place in and around Dansekapellet in week 15 2024, with around 150 paying audience members. We welcomed everyone, including people in wheelchairs, visually impaired, blind and caregivers. If you are hearing impaired, you can request to have the text transcribed.
Testimonials:
“This is one of the most powerful things I’ve seen in a long time. Thank you.”
“It is such a loss not knowing how wide the variety is of ‘what is a body’, how a body can look and function. It is only ‘abled-bodies’ loss. Thank you for this beautyful performance”
“Highly captivating show that deeply captures you as an audience. I´m in awe of the cast and what i have withnessed”
“I am moved. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for your courage. My body takes care of me. My body is a good body. I take that with me. Thank you”
“Beauty has many aesthetics”
“Intense and beautyful and full of love”
“A tribute to humanity, in all its places and times. Feeling very greatful. Feeling generosity in a shared space”
“Moving, touching, powerful, beauty in emotion, hurt in limitation, gently and with sharpness pointing to my privillige….. it was such a touching experience, and it is so powerful”
“Thank you for taking us through this beautiful and touching performance, with all its unique parts. It was heartfelt, playful, fragile and brave. I am cheering on all you artists, and please create more integrated and accessible art pieces”
Some of Anybody With Any Body’s photos have been turned into an EXHIBITION with support from Bispebjerg Bydelspulje.
In collaboration with Culture employees Anna Klarlund and Mette Gamst, 5 beautiful photos by Bahadir Badi Berber have been carefully selected and edited and text has been created so that the exhibition can stand alone from the solo dance performance Anybody With Any Body.
The exhibition can be viewed:
2022-23; Rentemestervej library, Copenhagen. Nv.
2024: In Dansekapellet during festival PÅ TVÆRS
2025: Folkemødet, Bornholm
“I was drawn to the representation of real bodies and the activist tone behind it. EXHIBITION makes me think because of the personal insight into the dancer’s body, emotions and vulnerability. It creates reflection, and probably also questions for the individual who experiences it” Lærke
“I was attracted to a woman (Dancer Sandie) who dares to stand by herself. EXHIBITION encourages us to look like and be who we are. It sets thoughts and reflections in motion” Dorte
