PROGRAM
SATURDAY, APRIL 26TH
11.00 - 00.00
MARC HOUSEWARMING PARTY, DAY 2
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​11.00 - 14.00 MASKOT, a dance piece in two parts. THE PARKOUR COURSE + THE MASKOT WORKSHOP
​No pre-reservation is needed, drop-in during the opening hours.
The work is intended for children, their guardians and siblings.​​
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An interactive dance piece by Rachel Tess for Norrdans
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About MASKOT
MASKOT is an interactive dance piece by choreographer Rachel Tess. It was created for Norrdans in 2022, and toured northern Sweden for children between 6–12 years of age. During Bästa Festivalen in 2023, MASKOT was presented in Broby in Östra Göinge and at Malmö Festivalen in 2024. WHAT DOES YOUR MASCOT LOOK LIKE? does it have eight legs and a tree in its belly? does it like to eat spray painted super fruit for lunch? and plays music from its head? DOES YOUR MASCOT LIKE TO DANCE? how would it move? maybe it has some favorite moves? Do like this - two steps: 1. THE PARCOUR TRACK – DREAM YOUR BODY! (approx. 25 mins.) You will shake as if you have a million ants crawling on your skin, slither through a maze, create a monstrous mountain, and pass through a magic portal as you turn to liquid. Begin at the station marked MAZE to meet your Maskot guides. 2. THE MASKOT WORKSHOP – CREATE YOUR OWN MASKOT! Here you will be provided with materials to build your Maskot. Your Maskot may have eighty toes and one giant ear that helps it fly to the moon. How would your Maskot move? Would it be different than how you move? Take the time that you need to build your dream Maskot on another person.
14.30 - 17.30 The wall on behalf of the body by Pontus Pettersson
No pre-reservation is needed.
Come and go as you please during the performance.
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By and with Pontus Pettersson
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About The wall on behalf of the body​​
Building on Pettersson’s long-term research on water, the wall on behalf of the body is an amalgamation of previous choreographies presented as a solo. The performance is both a site of excavation and an unearthing of bodies - bodies not present yet still remaining. Ghost dances, past eras, and labor interweave as Pettersson alternates between mounting discarded clothing to a wall with a staple gun and playing the accordion, producing a soundtrack of waves, bangs, and frenetic work that become the music for the performance. The backdrop, created throughout the duration of the performance, forms a sea of gestures and bodies, reflecting how water creates and carries bodies. It is an ongoing pursuit of a dance that exists in the present, with the past and future on either side. Pettersson's long-standing dedication and work at MARC might bring to mind previous performances, such as Bodies of Water at Wanås Konst in 2020 and A Dog Called Drama at MARC in 2021.
17.30 - 18.30 MEET MARC and PARK, mingle and snacks
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19.00 - 00.00 Dance is ancient with Frédéric Gies
No pre-reservation is needed.
Come and go as you please during the performance.
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Choreography and dance: Frédéric Gies
DJ: Fiedel
Sculpture: Anton Stoianov
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About 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.
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.
Pontus Pettersson
Photo: Tyra Wigg
Pontus Pettersson is a Swedish artist and choreographer based in Stockholm. He works within the expanded fields of choreography, art, and contemporary dance. His artistic practice blends various disciplines and genres, intertwining text, objects, sculptures, and choreographic instructions. By applying choreography to all aspects of his work, he creates pieces that range from installations, poetry, and fountains to objects, cat practice, and dance.
Pontus trained at the Danish National School of Performing Arts and holds a master’s degree in choreography from Stockholm University of the Arts, as well as a master’s degree in fine arts from Konstfack. In addition to his own artistic work, he co-runs Delta, a participatory and movement-based platform, with Izabella Borzecka, and co-organizes My Wild Flag, a dance and performance festival, with Karina Sarkissova.
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.