PROGRAM
FRIDAY, APRIL 25TH
17.00 - 23.00
MARC HOUSEWARMING PARTY, DAY 1
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​17.00 - 18.00 Opening speech, mingle and snacks
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18.00 - 19.00 handled and gone by Cristina Caprioli
No pre- reservation is needed.
Arrive at least 10 minutes before the show starts.​​​
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Choreography and dance: Cristina Caprioli
Sound: Richard Chartier, On Leaving
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About handled and gone
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 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.
20.00 - 21.00 Flip Side: Visualizing the woman I want to become in the mirror by Frédéric Gies with Rachel Tess
No pre-reservation is needed.
Arrive at least 10 minutes before the performance begins.
The performance includes profanity. While we welcome all ages to this performance, the attendance of children is at the discretion of their parents and guardians. Contact kajsa@milvusart.se for questions.
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Choreography: Frédéric Gies
Dancer: Rachel Tess
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About 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. 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
21.30 - 23.00 DJ Brittanie Brown
About Cristina Caprioli
Photo: Jens Wasel
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.
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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 59° North 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.
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Caprioli has received several awards, such as the Cullberg prize (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.” In 2024 she was honored with the Carina Ari Medal, and La Biennale di Venezia’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.
About Frédéric Gies
Photo: Thomas Zamolo
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.
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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.
Themes of sensuality, abjection, horror, euphoria, and eternity permeate her work. By embracing many apparent contradictions, she oversaturates, dissolves, and re-dreams the human experience. Transformation is central to her practice and aesthetic.
In her world-building, sound is experienced both visually and physically. She collaborates intimately with composers to create immersive sonic landscapes. The result is a dynamic pulse of shifting images and atmospheres, charged with immensity and uncanny undertone. With an eye for immediate and broad appeal, her finished pieces are inherently inviting yet layered with rich underlying intention. This approach informs her work as a performer, teacher, dramaturge, and choreographer.
After receiving a BA in political science and working for an NGO in Oakland California, she relocated to Europe and studied at the Danish National School for Performing Arts. Over the years she has collaborated with choreographers, musicians, visual artists, and academics in projects of various scales of capacity and ambition. She gives workshops and teaches for institutions and companies such as The Danish National School for Performing Arts, P.A.R.T.S., Danish Dance Theatre, Ballet De Lorraine, and Cullberg. Additionally, she has produced and created several pieces, including Vibrant Matter (2020) and Atmosphere of Decay (2023), and is currently developing a new work set to premiere in 2026.
About Rachel Tess
Photo: Mattias Givell
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.