Photos: Nadja Voorham
Stakes are high and the potential to fall too. In the piece Bien y Mal by choreographer Ofelia Jarl Ortega, five characters are facing the same fate, dealing with it in different ways. What at first seems graspable is displaced, and becomes uncertainty. There are neither good nor bad intentions, only devotion. It's a negotiation between fiction and factuality, naïvety and cunningness. Time is delicate, the asymmetry becomes clear as an unconditional bond takes shape. Any stance is commented upon from another place, which brings us closer to them, but not more certain about what will happen. The five find strategies to move forward, even if they don't have anything in common since nothing binds them, apart from what we, the audience, can unite them with. They keep us on the edge, in a breathtaking place, as our perception is trained and gets more nuanced. It’s not possible to do anything or to protect oneself, it’s an invitation to await the consequences.
Premiere 12 October 2022, Dansens Hus, Stockholm
Credits
Choreography Ofelia Jarl Ortega in close collaboration with the performers
Performers Ewa Dziarnowska, Gergo D. Farkas, Paolo de Venecia Gile, Dolores Hulan and Karina Villafan
Composition and sound design Jassem Hindi
Lighting design Mira Svanberg
Dramaturge Andrea Rodrigo.
Costume Erik Juvia Annerborn.
Photo Nadja Voorham.
Producer Terry Johnson (Johnson & Bergsmark)
Co-production Arsenic – Contemporary Performing Arts Centre, Lausanne, Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Workshop Foundation, Budapest, BIT Teatergarasjen, Bergen
Residency support DansIT, Trondheim, Dansstationen, Malmö, höjden studios, Stockholm, MDT Stockholm
With support from The Swedish Art Grants Committee, The Swedish Arts Council and Stockholms Stad.ormers offer themselves to each other to be used, downtrodden or deified, teased or even pleasured