Helena Franzén

Here- Us- Now

Here- Us- Now ny Helena Franzén

Photo: Håkan Jelk

Th 17.10.2024, 20:00-21:00, MDT

Fr 18.10.2024, 20:00-21:00, MDT

Sa 19.10.2024, 17:30-18:30, MDT

Su 20.10.2024, 15:00-16:00, MDT

In 1996, Helena Franzén premiered her first solo “Kantra” at Moderna Dansteatern. Now, 28 years later, she returns to dance the same solo at MDT, as a part of the collection piece “Here- Us- Now”.  “Here- Us- Now” consists of excerpts from dances out of Franzéns long career as a dancer and choreographer, interspersing works from the mid-90s with more recent ones, directly translated or re-interpreted. Franzén brings with her dancers and long-time collaborators Katarina Eriksson, Annika Hyvärinen, Åsa Lundvik Gustafson and Elizaveta Penkova. “Here- Us- Now” is a carrier of important dance history but also looks to the future; two third-year students from the Royal Swedish Ballet School are involved in the process and join the original ensemble. It turns into an important encounter and a handing over of movement material to the new generation. 


“It is exciting to dive into older works and getting to know them anew, like returning to an old friend and discovering new aspects of the well-known. Together with the dancers, this will be a journey along the memory lanes of our muscles and our minds. Together we carry a living archive!”

Helena Franzén


The work of Helena Franzén is dedicated to the boundless variety of movement, and the choreographies are characterized by precise qualities of movement and expression. Recurring themes include memory, how it takes up space and how it affects us, the impact of place, and phenomena related to our limited time. Helena Franzén consistently works with music specifically composed for her pieces. 


“Here- Us- Now” was originally created in connection to the retrospective exhibition “Mitt Dansande liv” at Dansmuseet in Stockholm 2019-20, on Franzéns 30 years of practice as a choreographer and dancer. 

Here-Us-Now consists of excerpts from choreographies in the following order with the original dancers:

- Kantra 1996 solo Helena Franzén. Premiere at the Choreography program, Moderna Dansteatern, Helena’s first commission with Skånes Dansteater.

- Out of Reach 2015, duet Annika Hyvärinen, Moa Westerlund. Premiere Kungsbacka teater.

- Trace Elements 2018, quartet, Katarina Eriksson, Annika Hyvärinen, Åsa Lundvik Gustafson, Moa Westerlund. Premiere Dansens Hus, Stockholm.

- Before I Change My Mind  2014, solo Annika Hyvärinen. Premiere Dansens Hus, Stockholm.

- Before I Change My Mind 2014 duet Katarina Eriksson, Åsa Lundvik Gustafson. 

- Slipping Through My Fingers 2012, solo Katarina Eriksson. Premiere Dansens Hus, Stockholm.

- I´m Not Looking Back 2011, all dancers participating. Premiere at Dansens Hus, Stockholm.

- TERRA 2019, duo Jeanette Wren, Alina Lagoas. Premiere Vitabergsparken, Stockholm.

- Before I Change My Mind 2014, solo Åsa Lundvik Gustafson. Premiere Dansens Hus, Stockholm.

- To Make this up 2013, duet Katarina Eriksson, Elizaveta Penkova. Premiere TUR teatern, Stockholm.

- What´s left Behind 2018 solo Elizaveta Penkova. Premiere NorrlandsOperan, Umeå.

- Trigger Point 2010, all dancers participating. Premiere Moderna Dansteatern, Stockholm.

Archiving dance - discussion after the performance on Sunday 20 October:

After the performance on Sunday 20.10, Celine Orman, project leader of Bevara Rörelse at Skånes Dansteater, will talk to Helena Franzén, dancer and choreographer and the  “Here-Us-Now” dancers. The talk is moderated by Anna Efraimsson, theatre director at MDT, is open to the public and in Swedish. The discussion will be centred around questions of memory preservation and how movement can be transmitted between generations.

Helena Franzén

Helena Franzén is a choreographer with more than 35 years of practice as a dancer and with choreographic work. She has created close to 100 pieces for the stage, which have toured nationally and internationally both as projects of her own and as commissions for institutions like: Skånes Dansteater, Göteborgsoperans danskompani, Norrdans, The Edge, Nytt Dansk Dansteater. Helena Franzén is a sought-after teacher and mentor and she regularly teaches at a large variety of dance institutions around the world. 


In 2019-2020 Helena Franzén presented a comprehensive retrospective exhibition at Dansmuseet in Stockholm - Mitt dansande liv. The exhibition included films, photographs, photo books, interviews with experts from the dance field, two publications by Cecilia Malmström Olsson and Sinikka Neuhaus, and excerpts from Franzéns 30 years of artistic work. 


For the past ten years, Helena Franzén has created dance films together with the photographer and filmmaker Håkan Jelk. Their films have been presented at several international dance film festivals. During recent years, Helena has created work for other settings and rooms and her solo, Reverberate 2022, at Norrköpings konstmuseum is the latest in this series of collaborations. In 2024, she is collaborating with Uppsala konstmuseum in Brytpunkt, a spatial installation and live performance. Helena Franzén was awarded with DANSPRISET 2024 for her, among other things, being idiomatically uncompromising and consistent in her dance vocabulary throughout her long career.

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Choreography

Dance

Elizaveta Penkova and students Assa Davidsdottir and Dahlina Bagheri from the Royal Swedish Ballet School.


Original premiere

Dansmuseet, Stockholm, February 6th, 2020.

With support from the Swedish Arts Council and Region Stockholm.

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