Solo om æg og forpupning
(Solo about Eggs and Pupation)
Premiere: 2nd June 2000, Dansescenen, Copenhagen.
Solo about Eggs and Pupation is a mesmerizing visual ritual focusing on oviposition, fertilization and pupation. The universal cycle of birth and death – growth and destruction.
Concept, choreography and dance: Anders Christiansen
Music: Nasa Voyager Space Sounds, Uranus
Set design: Anders Christiansen and Lise Klitten
Costume design: Lise Klitten
Lighting design: Lars Egegaard Sørensen
Producer / PR: Gerd Shottländer
Production: (stillleben)
Minimum stage measurements: 9 x 9 meter
Duration:20 minutter
Press quotes:
The hook in the flesh.
”In a most surprising manner a pupated manikin appears to disclose the shadow of an insect glowing beneath him like a half developed dark side. Surrounded by man-sized grubs hanging from meat hooks he squeezes through the different stages of hatching, ending up like a dangling spectre with the grubs ready to take over.
Here is everything that the art police can possibly demand when it comes to potency of imagery, aesthetic perfection and signs that the choreographer is heading for a new phase in his exploration of the animal in the flesh.”
Monna Dithmer (Politiken, 8th June 2000)
”There exists in Anders Christiansen's piece a dividing line between that, which has already been in the world, and that which is to come. The organism has arrived, but the organism's more or less alienated offspring is sealed in a perfect and silent limbo.
For instance the dinosaur-sized egg that Christiansen carries with him in Solo om æg og forpupning from 2000. The egg waits. Silently, while the flesh that laid it must go on. The solo is a 17-minute short piece, which is completely dedicated to its own minimalist world. In the background a perpetual planetary wind whistles, but the organic life line from egg to pupation is the only obvious sign of movement.
Christiansen is himself a creature in a state of flux. As the Olympian narrator he repositions and instigates things on stage. He is involved when necessary. He is the one who fertilizes as well as story-teller and scientist.“
Janus Kodal (Politiken, 29th January 2005)
”...the title alone, Solo om æg og forpupning (Solo on Eggs and Pupation), signals that something very special is going on in the Danish dance world. Here on stage is a man dressed in curious robes and a body that crawls around in weird jerks. An androgynous being about to explore the tension between body and gender, between human being and animal.
The movements are powerful and juicy in a sequence of strange images of sacrificial rituals, with Anders Christiansen acting as high priest. Even though one can scarcely comprehend what it's all about, there is something in his movement and round, neutral and friendly face that fascinates and makes one want to watch and watch.“
Henrik Lyding (Jyllands-Posten , Copenhagen, 1st February 2005)
Venues:
Dansescenen, Copenhagen, 26 January - 5 February 2005 (double programme with Uro/Mangel).
Dansescenen, Copenhagen, 2-3 June 2000 (solo programme SUSHI).
Solo om æg og forpupning was produced with support from The Danish Arts Council and Københavns Kulturfond.
Photographs: Christoffer Askman
In all pictures: Anders Christiansen
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