Amanda Apetrea

Halla Ólafsdóttir

DEAD by Beauty and the Beast

Two women with full face black and white makeup and blood running from their mouths

Photo: Märta Thisner.

Ti 25.4.2017, 20:00-21:00, MDT

On 26.4.2017, 20:00-21:00, MDT

Fr 28.4.2017, 20:00-21:00, MDT

There is a story that tells of Beauty and the Beast’s fascination with their own shadow. They kept looking at it, scratching it, pecking at it, fisting it, burning it, licking it, until their shadow woke up, became alive and ate them. Beauty and the Beast are now “DEAD”.

For more than two decades the duo Beauty and the Beast, Amanda Apetrea and Halla Ólafsdóttir have remained a mythical force in dance and have created new lyrical expressions with their gravelly voices and poetic dances – musing over love, heartbreaks, friendship and togetherness, war, death and sex.

Their new show, "DEAD", is a pornographic and dystopian dance performance that merges dance, poetry, music, the beauty of darkness and the in between, seeing inner and outer realities. Exploring expressions of sexuality, body and gender flirting with the power of horniness and lust. A power that they believe can move mountains.

The show will be performed under consent in agreement with its audience, which means that anyone who enters agrees to what ever will happened during the show. It also means that anyone can leave at any time. As always it is about you and them and all the love in between.

Amanda Apetrea

Amanda Apetrea (born in 1981 in Uppsala, Sweden) is a performer and choreographer based in Stockholm. In her work she integrates political theories such as feminism, sexpositivism, body positivism and queerutopism. Apetrea went to Ballet Academy in Stockholm and has a masters degree in choreography from DOCH (University College of Dance and Circus), Stockholm. 

Her works are marked by her feminist point of view, calling into question larger power structures of the modern world through the performance of western classical and cultural dance, spectacle and conceptual performance. Her current works challenge structures that restrain and inhibit the microcosm of the choreographic field as a reflection of society at large.

As Apetrea has continued to critically examine, integrate and inhabit the above mentioned overlapping politically radical theoretical concepts, her work has significantly hinged on the collaborative process and ethos fostered with the ÖFA-collective that Apetrea co-founded in 2004, as well as Samlingen started in 2014. Some of these collaboratively authored works are: I Ass Jazz with Emma Tolander and Lisen Rosell, EDIE&EDIE with Emma Tolander, Beauty and the Beast with Halla Ólafsdóttir featuring Lisen Rosell and Chrisander Brun (jardin d’europe 2013 prize winner), DEAD with Ólafsdóttir, Samlingen - en danshistoria (Riksteatern) with Nadja Hjorton, Zoë Poluch, Stina Nyberg and Halla Ólafsdóttir, I’m a Very Understanding Woman, SPRINGITME and There Will Be Men with Mica Sigourney (SF, USA). Grottbjörnens Folk with Nadja Hjorton and Lisen Rosell and Stolthet och fördom with Lisen Rosell.

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Halla Ólafsdóttir

Halla Ólafsdóttir is a dancer and choreographer with an MA in choreography from Stockholm University of the Arts (formerly DOCH). She works collectively in various constellations, looking for ways to expand the notion of choreography. A big part of her work revolves around recognisable material from art and pop culture, which she uses to explore what happens when set in another context.  She often makes use of convention and cliché, trying to find working methods that break and erase. For Halla, the meeting between the artist and audience beyond the stage is very important, and through her artistic work she has focused on building structures to provide feedback, both among artists, but also between the audience and practitioners.

Halla has been touring with Amanda Apetrea with the pieces DEAD (2017) and Beauty and the Beast, which won the Prix Jardin d’Europe Awards at ImpulsTanz in 2013. Sälkvinnorna (Seals) (2023) is the duo's latest work. Halla is part of the collective Samlingen, a choreographic project where a common interest in choreography and feminism is intertwined with the history of dance, together with other practitioners and the audience. Samlingen changes from place to place and has so far worked at Cullberg, the Postdance conference, the Works at work festival in Copenhagen and at Riksteatern (The Swedish National Touring Theatre). 

Halla experiments with various forms and expressions, and finds inspiration in different art forms. She played the lead role in the feature film Under Influence by Sidney Leoni and will play in the upcoming FLY by Leoni, as well as in a new film directed by Ester Martin Bergsmark, A Sweetness From Nowhere. Halla and choreographer Eliisa Erävalo have developed the workshop BITCHCRAFT which was held with Cullberg and with Iceland Art Academy. Together, they have created the works Bitch (2021) and Granddaughters (2022).  With Erna Ómarsdóttir Halla is currently working with their piece Romeo <3 Juliet (nominated for “DER FAUST Awards” 2019)  with Iceland Dance Company, and with a new work called The Juliet Duet (2022).

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Light and scenography

Professional feedbackers

Sound mix

Technician

Administrative structure

Co-production

MDT, Atalante, Dansstationen and BUDA Art Center.

Supported by

The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, The City of Stockholm and Swedish Arts Council. This presentation is part of the project [DNA] Departures and Arrivals, which is co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission.

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