ELLEN SÖDERHULT

Blessika (performance)
Aug 9 / 18:00 / UKS
TICKETS

”What can be done with only 4 small meat limbs, 5 including the skull, could be called dancing. 

The solid package in the middle they manage to twist around the spine like a dishcloth you twist between your hands. The blood seeps and gushes. Intestines, kidneys are pressed and released every other time and when the liver hits the hard floor, the heart skips a beat. Rigid skeleton chops and breaks in its attempts to follow pulsating soft muscles. If the music were to stop, we would hear it scream. Lucky then that their tendons are hooked in between. They hang and toss them, hoping that they will last just this last time. It rushes around the marrow. The meat alternately loosens and tightens. Teeth are bared, saliva flows and in the end we no longer know what is human and what is animal. 

And this is what is in modern times called modern dance.” 

Dances and sounds with cold temperatures and moist textures sneak up, drag along, whisper in your neck, and twitch. Ghosts and myths about things that happen when the sun isn’t shining are invited in, and moods and states related to folklore and the night are depicted. A world echoing with mythology looms and encroaches. They rummage through historical echoes, exaggerating and distorting them. Moods and states are portrayed, inspired by the links between the Devil and the fiddler, mythological figures, and ballet icons. The performance uses historical portrayals as a starting point for an exploration of other continuations.

Blessika is a horror-inspired performance and the second work where choreographer Ellen Söderhult approaches choreography as a haunted art form.

BIO

Ellen Söderhult is a dancer and choreographer based in Stockholm. Her choreographic works have often taken on the collective as protagonist (Rudy, Shane et al, How to do things with Romance: a prologue, DUNKA DUNKA), but also explored monstrous emotions and textures in sweet-bitter love (GROV) and the ghostly in the relationship between dancer and dance (Spökdanser, Blessika).

With a background in choral singing and sports, she often works with voice, enveloping soundscapes and big leaps. 2022 she received the Cullberg prize. Ellen is educated at Bollnäs Folk High School's music program and on the bachelor's programmes in contemporary dance and circus at DOCH / Stockholm University of the Arts.

CREDITS

Choreography
Ellen Söderhult

Dancers
Cajsa Godée, Hanna Blomqvist, Catarina Zarazua Mujo & Ellen Söderhult

Composer
Kajsa Blom / KABLAM

Scenography & Costumes
Amanda Hedman Hägerström

Light design
Michael Forsberg

Mythology writers & speaker voice
Liv Hargne Granath

Photos
Fredrika Eriksson

Co-production
Weld & Scenkonst Sörmland

Supported by
Kulturrådet, Region Stockholm, Nordisk Kulturkontakt, Stockholms Stad & Konstnärsnämnden