Get ready to experience Danish Dance Theatre’s new Artistic Director Marina Mascarell’s first World Premiere for Danish Dance Theatre. Mascarell has created works for some of the world’s largest dance companies, including Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), and now audiences can finally witness a new work for and with the company’s dancers. BLOODY MOON is inspired by Georges Bataille’s work “Eroticism” and becomes a celebration of the three forms of eroticism: the eroticism of the body, the eroticism of the heart, and the sacred eroticism, with newly composed music and beats by Yamila Rios and playful costumes by Nina Botkay. Like any good celebration, transgression is precisely what gives it a wonderful and divine aspect. We, as audience members, witness the debauchery: the final dance of a group eager to live life in all its splendour, aware of its finitude and united by the common feeling of dizziness towards the abyss.

Premiere: 7 August 2024, Ofelia Plads, Copenhagen Summer Dance

Adam Linder is known for his innovative and interdisciplinary approach to dance and performing arts. He has gained recognition for his work in the field of choreography, collaborating with various artists and venues like MOMA in New York. His works are visceral and intuitive, with a unique approach to the body and rhythm combining the earthy, industrial, classical and urban.

Linder’s new work is created and choreographed in close collaboration with the dancers of Danish Dance Theatre. The piece will be an exciting journey into a parallel universe where we are witnessing an evolution experiment inspired by the public “operating theatres” of the 16th-century England. The performance is structured in four parts. Here we encounter the hybrid primal/animal bodies that evolve into mechanical bodies and further into thinking, spiritual individuals. Ultimately the bodies transform into a social, dancing community —celebrating dance as the highest pursuit of humanity. The set design is created by architect and set designer Deniz Celtek and will consist of flexible modules that can surprisingly transform and reshape the stage as the performance unfolds.

Premiere: 19 October 2024, Skuespilhuset, Copenhagen, Denmark

The piece explores pettiness, oppression, and herd mentality. This contemporary dance performance delves into the Law of Jante, as envisioned by Marina Mascarell and the mongrel community epitomizes a group of narrow-minded individuals propelled by envy and apprehension towards the unfamiliar or new arrivals. They fail to celebrate uniqueness, instead exalting mediocrity and ensuring conformity while oppressing any divergence from the norm.

“Mongrels, to me, represent the alter ego of humans. They are street dogs without any specific breed. I employ this metaphor to shed light on the outsider, the stranger, the peculiar, the different, and the unconventional amidst the norm,” Marina Mascarell.

KØTER premiered in October 2015 at the Gothenburg Opera as an original piece for one of the world’s leading dance companies, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. It received an enthusiastic response from both audiences and critics alike, earning nominations for the 2016 Barcelona Critics’ Awards in categories such as Best International Performance and Best Choreography, ultimately winning the award for Best Set Design. For the Danish premiere, an original musical composition has been crafted by the Spanish composer and cellist, Yamila Ríos and new costumes have been designed by Nina Botkay. Marina Mascarell have also revisited the choreography together with the dancers of Danish Dance Theatre.

Premiere: 17 January 2024, Det Kongelige Teater, Denmark

★★★★
”Aesthetically delicious about the nature of Janteloven and a beautiful entrance for Marina Mascarell’s to see her own choreographic work with Dansk Danseteater,” iscene.dk