Us Us / Us Else / Else Us / Else Else, is a durational and immersive contemporary dance performance for two dancers, a musician, a kinesthetic sculpture in the form of a rotating stage, a fifteen meter in diameter hanging light sculpture and twelve speakers.
The work premiered at ARoS in 2023, as both a live performance over four hours and an integrated installation to be experienced before and after the performance. A 75 minute black box version was further developed and premiered at Teater Momentum. Both versions are currently on tour.
In a contemporary fragmented, chaotic and polarized world situation, the creators explore the potentials of dance and choreography as a space for attuning with one another and relating to our common humanity, through states of pulsing that all bodies can recognize.
Kinesthetic empathy is the guiding choreographic principle, starting from a singular physical pulse that creates a kinesthetic synchronization between performers and spectators.
A single pulse starts appearing, seemingly out of stillness, creating a synchronicity between the three performing bodies, evolving to include all spectators, creating a sensory journey that ranges from the subliminal to the ecstatic.
The layered musical composition is played live, thereby keeping the live relation between dance and music active throughout the work. The four channel speaker setup, creates directionality shifts due to the division of elements between the speakers, enhancing and guiding the choreographic evolution.
The whole experience is supported by a rotating stage and a fifteen meter in diameter light sculpture, surrounding and circling the work architecturally, creating a social setting for performers and audience to engage with and feel included in.
Us Us / Us Else / Else Us / Else Else is a work that positions itself in the space between live performance and installation, allowing audiences to interact with the installation and the live performance on their own terms.
All elements of the work stay grounded throughout, in the dance practice Transformation Through Repetition, creating a transformative dramaturgy, laying the ground for real connections to establish between audience, work and performers. The kinesthetic relation to a pulsating body, that we all can recognize, creates the right onset, for a transformative experience and a genuine exploration of empathetic states.
Us Us / Us Else / Else Us / Else Else premiered on the 11th of October 2023, at ARoS Art Museum in Århus, co-presented and produced by Dansehallerne and ARoS. The durational four hour version toured to Dansens Hus, Stockholm in October 2024.
The 75 minute black box version premiered at Teater Momentum in May 2024 and was thereafter shown at Dansstationen, Malmö in November 2024.
In October 2025 the durational four hour version, will be presented in Dansehallernes new building in Copenhagen.
Us Us / Us Else / Else Us / Else Else has been developed through residencies at MARC (Milvus Artistic Research Center), Forsøgsstationen and Dansstationen. The development and tour of Us Us / Us Else / Else Us / Else Else has been supported by Statens Kunstfond, Augustinus Fonden, William Demant Fonden, Beckett Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fonden, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Letterstedtska Foreningen and Fondet for Dansk-Svensk Samarbejde.
With and by:
Choreography and dance: Tim Matiakis and Rachel Tess / Composition and live performance: Ulrich Ruchlinski / Light design: Thomas Zamolo / Light ring: Jacob Bjerregaard / Producer: Kajsa Rolfsson / Operating technicians and technical coordination: Kasper Riisberg and Tanya Johansson / Clothes provided by: Henrik Vibskov / Fundraising: Maria Schultz Christiansen / Concept: Tim Matiakis in collaboration with the artistic team / Administration: Astrid Gravsholt / Production: KINISI