Cullberg | Hooman Sharifi

WHILE IN BATTLE I’M FREE, NEVER FREE TO REST by Cullberg & Hooman Sharifi

DATE: 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 June at 19h30
PLACE: Blågårds Plads, Cph. N
WHAT: Dance
FOR FREE – reserve a seat (limited) OBS: Even if the seating tickets are sold out, the performance remains accessible for viewing.

20 dancing bodies occupy a place in the city

While in battle I’m free, never free to rest is a rare life-affirming flow of collective power. It is unpredictable and magical when 10 street dancers meet 10 dancers from the renowned Swedish company Cullberg on one of the city’s most diverse squares.

The Iranian-born choreographer Hooman Sharifi has created a very special meeting between dancers – between people – with very different backgrounds. They each speak their own (body) language, each have their own ethnicity, nationality, culture, but share the Earth.

The title of the performance is a quote from civil rights activist James Baldwin. While in battle I’m free, never free to rest. Is life a struggle for life or death? Or a powerful dance party, if only we set our bodies free?

For the uncompromising choreographer Sharifi, art is always political. In a time full of conflict, when groupings are fighting and going to war, he sets out with a masterpiece about the collective’s power of creating change. About how out of our differences new opportunities arise if we make room. About how we all fight to be free in the world. Together, but with individual voices.

The dancers swirl around each other in intense, sweat-dripping choreography, while we as the audience are drawn into their universe. We surround the dancers as the alluring soundtrack envelops us. Neda Sanai has created her own special music by sampling a unique tapestry of Iranian folk music.

20 bodies in constant motion create a nomadic and human ritual that insists that we are part of the same infinite body and that we set its pulse free.

Duration: 1h 30min.
Age: For all

Interview with choreographer Hooman Sharifi

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Choreographer Hooman Sharifi (NO) was born in Tehran in 1973 and came to Norway alone as a 15-year-old. He began his dance career as a teenager with hip-hop and later continued with classical and modern ballet and has a degree in choreography from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He is particularly interested in the intersection between dance, theatre and visual arts. In 2000, he founded his own company, Impure Company, which focuses on community engagement and has since created over 30 choreographic works. Sharifi’s movement language is physically exhausting, intense and powerful, exploring the structures behind hierarchies, power, political systems and violence. 2014-18 he was artistic director of Norway’s national contemporary dance company, Carte Blanche. Sharifi collaborates with many large institutions, and his works have been very successful internationally.

Cullberg is an internationally recognized dance company founded in 1967, based in Stockholm – a historic institution in Swedish and international performing arts, which still manages to speak to its contemporaries. Their repertoire comments on and reflects our society, and they work continuously to ensure that as many people as possible in Sweden and internationally can enjoy contemporary dance.
www.cullberg.com

REVIEWS

“World class when Cullberg scales up… Cullberg has created a work to meet many with; it is big, strong, beautiful and nuances all statements about belonging and being at home. Ancient dance, world dance, world class.” – Ekspressen

“…a feeling of quiet euphoria arises. A small step for our audience cohesion, a big step for Hoomanism” – Aftonbladet

“Cullberg creates a pause bubble for the human encounter without alienation and polarization” – Dagens Nyheter

PRACTICAL INFO

You can reserve a free ticket (link at the top of the page – limited number). It gives you access to a seat on a bench or seat cushion on the ground. First come, first served. Please take your place 15 min.before the start of the performance, as it may otherwise be given to another party.

If you haven’t reserved a place, you just turn up. There is plenty of place to stand around the performance area.

CREDITS

Choreography: Hooman Sharifi
Text: BAM – Burcu Sahin, Athena Farrokhzad, Merima Dizdarević
Music and Sound Design: Neda Sanai
Light: David Prokopic and Hooman Sharifi
Costume: Marita Tjärnström and Hooman Sharifi
Rehearsal Director: Agnieszka Dlugoszewska
Project Advisor: Niki Tsappos
Production: Cullberg
Dancers: Afra Hosseini Kaladjahi, Ama Kyei, Anastasija Olescuka, Andreas Sanchez, Anna Fitoussi, Anton Borgström, Camille Prieux, Chiara Gilioli, Eleanor Campbell, Gloria Kapako, Ida Holmlund, Johanna Willig-Rosenstein, Lilian Steiner, Mohamed Y. Shika, Noam Segal, Omar Velasquez Rojas, Rebecca Livaniou, Robin Johansson, Shai Faran, Vincent Van der Plas.
Cullberg is part of Riksteatern, the Swedish National Touring Theatre