- Dance performances

- Damekrop - on tour - 2024

An image-rich, humorous and reckless cult performance about the body in transition.
Four wonderful women of the right age tackle the questions: What’s happening – what’s it like – where is it going?
Welcome to an overheated universe of flesh, fat, sweat, hormones and emotions.
A show about losing control and realising that everything is on loan….

LINK to Aaben dans

Concept and staging Kamilla Wargo Brekling, Thomas Eisenhardt
Choreographer Thomas Eisenhardt
Director and playwright Kamilla Wargo Brekling
Performers Camilla Stage, Elke Laleman, Helene Kvint, Tomomi Yamauchi
Operator and technical crew Elke Laleman
Composer and musician Frederik Lundin 
Bjørn Heebøl - drums
Choir Lise Kroner, Maria Kynne, Tine Refsgaard, Trinelise Væring
Set and costume design Kasper Hansen from KASPERSOPHIE
Lighting design and technical crew Brian Cordhomme
Tailor Tytti Sofia Hongisto
Trailer Adam Klixbüll Eisenhardt, Laura Käehne
Photography Ditte Valente, Per Morten Abrahamsen
Produced by Aaben Dans

Press reviewss

Taboo after taboo is exposed until every aspect of women’s menopause is vibrated, screamed, cried, laughed and hugged away.
Dorte Grannov Balslev – iScene

Aaben Dans delightfully hits both the comedy and the anger of having the female body placed in the middle of a hot flash – in a generous and honest dance performance about falling into menopause. With a charming hot flash smile.
Anne Middelboe Christensen – Information

DAMEKROP is an equilibristic collage of the multifaceted expressions and emotions of the female menopause … The performance is for everyone. It should be seen by everyone, so we can open our eyes to what a quirky, beautiful and unruly thing menopause is.
Stina Strange Thue – Bastard

- Hvad kan den, hvad skal den ? -2023

  • A sparklingly fresh physical fantasy about surviving in the civilized world – with wildness intact.
  • It’s fun and great to have a body.
    It has muscles and arms and feet and head and hair and heart and lungs and nails and everything.
    It can balance and run and bend into strange positions.
    And it can lift and kick and move things around in the world.
  • But what should it do? It should sit properly, that´s what it should!
  • A performance full of questions and wonder:
    Why do we do the things we do?
    Why are we allowed cetain things?
    Why are we not allowed other things?
  • Now we are turning what we have learned upside down!
    LINK to Aaben dans

Concept + choreography + staging Kamilla Wargo Brekling, Thomas Eisenhardt

Dancers and choreography Alvilda Faber Striim, Nanna Hanfgarn Jensen /or Cecilie Schyth Kjær and Ole Birger Hansen

Set design and costumes KASPERSOPHIE

Composer and music Fredrik Lundin

Production Manager Madeleine Lind Hoppe

Trailer Adam Laver Film and Monokel studio

Photo Ditte Valente

Produced by Aaben Dans

Press reviews

The children sit on benches on all four sides of the dance floor. They clearly turn on the dance. … ‘What can it do – and what should it do?’ is an original and rebellious dance performance that hits right into the common goals of the primary school with a twinkle in the eye and a desire to play. And lots with infectious curiosity. Anne Middelboe,  Teateravisen

Hvad er det ? ("What's That ?") - 2020

Curiosity is the strongest drive as a small child discovers the world. A drive that can last for a lifetime.Through movement and dance, the dancers explore both the body and the space without taking anything for granted. 

Created by the renowned choreographers and directors Thomas Eisenhardt and Kamilla Wargo Brekling, in collaboration with dancers Antoinette Helbing and Ole Birger Hansen, to music composed by Fredrik Lundin, in a scenography created by design duo KASPERSOPHIE.

Link to Åben Dans

Music

Press reviews

A very nice review in Teateravisen Sept. 16th 2020

"Aaben Dans har med ’Hvad er det?’ skabt et nysgerrigt performanceværk, der udrydder alle regler og koncepter og opdager verden på ny."
"Musikken [..], er skønt komponeret af jazzmusiker Fredrik Lundin. Den lyder, som nysgerrighed ville lyde, hvis den var instrumenteret. Og sammen med performerne, den imponerende scenografi og det fine lysdesign omslutter musikken fint forestillingens udtryk."
"Vi er ikke bare på en opdagelsesrejse, men faktisk på en dannelsesrejse. For hvordan lærer vi at sætte fødderne foran hinanden, når vi går? Det gør vi ved at opdage det."

Read the review here
 

Danstidningen A wonderful descriptive review (in Swedish) of the performance from the Swedish magazine Danstidningen. 407 KB

The making of "Hvad er det"?

Ai-Ai-Ai ! - 2018

A humorous performance about body and technology, Ages 6 years +  

Technology is all around us, within us and between us. We love to play computer games, send snapchats and text messages, watch Youtube and to be on the internet – each on our individual screens. We are in contact with all of the world like this – but maybe we are not in contact with the persons who are right next to us – nor in contact with ourselves.  
So, what do you do, when you would like to play with somebody, who prefers to play games on a screen instead of playing with you? When are you really together with somebody? And what if the person you spend time with is actually a machine?  

In a physical and humorous way, Folmer, Ole and Antoinette investigate our world filled with screens, artificial intelligence and human presence. 

Idea + concept + choreography + direction: Thomas Eisenhardt and Catherine Poher  
Dancers + choreography: Antoinette Helbing and Ole Birger Hansen,  
Performer: Folmer Kristensen,  
Music: Fredrik Lundin  
Costumes: Charlotte Østergaard  
Production manager: Madeleine Lind Hoppe  
Light + video + technique: Elke Laleman  
Technical student: Joakim Bruhn Krogh Rødgaard  
Photo: Ditte Valente  
Graphics: Line Thornberg  
Produced by Aaben Dans

Ai-Ai-Ai !

Igen ! (Again !) - 2011 - 2019

A dance performance for the smallest children and their adults about the joy of life.

Idea: Catherine Poher and Thomas Eisenhardt 

Choreography: Thomas Eisenhardt 

Direction: Catherine Poher 

Dance and choreography: Antoinette Helbing/Jenny Ecke or Georgia Kapodistria and Ole Birger Hansen 

Set and light design: Carina Persson 

Set design and costumes: Ulrika van Gelder 

Music: Fredrik Lundin 

Textile sculptures: Catherine Poher and Valentine Fell 

Production: Madeleine Lind Hoppe 

Graphic design: Line Thornberg

Pruced by Aaben Dans

I svanesøen (In the Swan Lake) - 2013

A Theater/Dance performance by Simon Vagn Jensen of Odsherred Teater and Thomas Eisenhardt of Åben Dans. Von Rothbard played by Henrik Ipsen and his daughter danced by Kristina Sørensen. Video art Arthur Steijn.

About the music:
When composing the music for this performance, I ventured into Tchaikovski's Swan Lake-music, and composed , for instance, new melodies on the rhythms of very well know themes of his. I also sampled a couple of bars of a recording of his music, reverted the sample, and wrote new music on top of that.

- Theater

- Vejen - 2023 - now

Vejen (THE PATH) - A Storytelling Concert About Grief, Empathy, and Hope

Vejen is a beautiful and powerful tale about a mother who loses a child and, with it, her footing in this world. In despair and rage, she embarks on a tumultuous journey. Only when she begins to see and sense others can she truly feel herself and find her way back home.

The story is structured as a classic fairy tale with mythical dimensions, effortlessly shifting between warm humor and great drama. It is a storytelling concert—a blend of theater and music—where text and music share equal roles in the narrative, interconnected and in dialogue, leading and following each other.

Cast:
Storyteller: Anya Sass
Musicians: Fredrik Lundin, Martine Madsen, Joel Illerhag

Direction: Madeleine Røn Juul
Music: Fredrik Lundin
Fairy Tale: Jacques S. Matthiessen
Scenography: Christian Q Clausen
Costumes: Ellen Ahnfelt-Rønne

Reviews

"Text and music are intricately woven into a touching yet unsentimental story about loss, unbearable grief, and pain—and, despite it all, choosing life. Beautifully written, set to music, and equally beautifully performed by the cast in a strong symbiosis between storyteller Anya Sass and the musicians, led by Fredrik Lundin.

Anya Sass is a phenomenal storyteller who effortlessly transitions between the fairy tale’s various characters and the narrator role with great presence, clarity, and impact.

Fredrik Lundin is a masterful musical storyteller on his saxophone, beautifully accompanied by Martine Madsen’s guitar and Joel Illerhag on bass... Together, they fill the audience’s ears with harmonies while the mother shuts herself off from the world and her family, frozen in her grief and insistence that her sorrow is greater than anyone else’s.”
Randi K. Pedersen

King Lear - on tour now

Childrens theater puppet version of  Shakespeare's King Lear by Jacques Matthiessen.

The Puppets are made out of tin cans, so I chose to use tin cans in different sizes to generate the percussions sounds you hear.

For more information go to Passepartout Theater's homepage

News and playing dates

About the play

Shakespeare's drama about the vanity King Lear, told in a nonverbal, sparkling, heartbreaking puppet show version for the whole family. 

King Lear is old and must share his kingdom between his three daughters. He will do this according to how much they love him. But how do you measure love in Lear's world? 

Two bakers who are going to bake Lear’s birthday cake tell the story. In a simple and comic way, they knead, bake, share and serve the drama so that children from age of six can understand. 

As in all the Shakespeare's tragedies, all ends terribly wrong, and Lear finally understand his mistake ...  you cannot put a price on love. 

​Concept and Stage Director: Jacques S Matthiessen 

Set Design: Rolf Søborg Hansen and Christian Q Clausen 

​ On Stage: Lene Hummelshøj and Christine Gaski or Rune Antonio Bro

​ " Puppet Theater in W-o-r-l-d-c-l-a-s-s. " 

– Børn I Byen 

​​ Produced by HamletScenen in 2014 

​​ From summer 2018 in a tour-friendly set up from Passepartout Theatre Production.

Othello

Children's theater puppet version of Shakespeare's play by Jacques Matthiessen. 

I took this opportunity to find some new musical friends, and asked saz player Fuat Talay and multi instrumentalist Mads Kjøller-Henningsen (hardy-gurdy, bagpipes  and more) to join me in recording the music for this play 

For more information go to Passepartout Theater's homepage: https://www.passepartout-theatre.com/copy-of-performances-projects

A fresh, figurative and quite different puppet show version of Othello, with dramatic focus on Shakespeare’s political rapture. 

​ Two political spin-doctors meet to make an account over a chess-party. On the game board, there is no room for any scruples, and the nasty story unfolds - about how the sneaky Jago with dirty tricks and fatal lies distorts the head of the naive Othello - just to reach the top of power. 

And it is Shakespeare - nobody is spared,  there is no winner, everybody dies. 

​ In short - half an hour's serious, nonverbal entertainment for the whole family! 

​ " ★★★★★ for Othello - a delight for the eye - quite and achievement "
- CPH Culture 

​ Concept and Stage Director: Jacques S Matthiessen 

On Stage: Finn Rye Petersen and Lene Hummelshøj 

Set Design: Christian Q Clausen 

Puppets: Martynas Lukosius 

​ Produced by HamletScenen in 2017. 

​ From summer 2018 there will be a tour-friendly set up from Passepartout Theatre Production.

romeo and juliet - on tour now

 

News and playing dates

About the play

A light, unconventional version for the whole family, where the Monk Lorenzo – with deep seriousness and humor - navigates us through Shakespeare's classical drama about the feuding families and the adolescent, impossible love.  

He tells the story without a word and with help from his co-actors - his garden tools! Booms, shovels and rakes turns out to be a surprising and lively person gallery accompanied by Fredrik Lundin's magical music.  

Concept and Stage Director: Jacques S Matthiessen 

Developed with Finn Rye Petersen in 2013. 
Set Design: Rolf Søborg Hansen, Christian Q Clausen  

On Stage: Olaf Højgaard

" A lively mini-drama for children ... without words, but with sensually tense acting, great music and unbelievably imaginative dolls .... and to understand, though the staging focuses very sharp on the feud between the Montague and Capulet families and the impossible love between their teenage children. "  

-Randi K. Pedersen / Teateravisen

Men de begyndte / But they started

- På sporet 2009-2009