Johanssons pelargoner och dans is a performing arts group that likes the broad, kind, and intuitive. The company creates performing art where the audience is involved physically, focusing on the bodily experience of those who participate.
The work is often aimed at children and young people and the company has a great interest in the equal and inclusive meeting of the audience, regardless of the target group. Since 2009, Johanssons pelargoner och dans holds workshops, tour performances, give lectures, and run projects. The members of Johanssons pelargoner och dans are dance educators, choreographers, and dancers.
In 2021 Johanssons pelargoner och dans is Artist in residence at Södertörn University in Stockholm, developing the artistic methods of immersive performing arts.
In 2020 Johanssons pelargoner och dans published the company´s first book “Anthology for a multilingual performing arts” (eds. Haglund, Styrke & Wiklund).
In May 2022 Johanssons pelargoner och dans will premier the new work Medelgympa – a performing arts event and a gym session, a reflection and an action, a ritual, and a meditation on the body and the collective.
AVAILABLE WORKS 2022-2023
The Choreography
The Choreography is a performance filled with galloping horses, confetti, bold movements, imaginary hamsters, and dance. The piece explores the world through movement and examines how the way we move can affect our thoughts and what we see and feel.
The Choreography is based entirely on the audience’s participation. All participants receive a pair of headphones, and a guiding voice gives them instructions on how to move, how to relate to one’s body and how to relate to one another. In other words, there are no dancers in the performance. Instead, the members of the audience create The Choreography together.
In The Choreography, each person in the audience can choose whether they want to experience the performance in Arabic, Dari, English, Farsi, Finnish, German, Kurdish, Meänkieli, Northern Sami, Pashto, Romani, Russian, Turkish, Somali, Southern Sami or Swedish. Regardless of language, everyone can participate together, listen to the same instructions and share an equal experience. The performance is suitable from about 10 years and up, or from 7 years if accompanied by an adult.
Medelgympa
“Gympa” [ˈjʏ̀mːpa] is a Swedish form of group aerobic training.
Medelgympa is the result of an exploration of gympa as a bodily practice and social phenomenon. We are particularly interested in the kind of community that can take shape during a session of gympa. The collective rush. The gratitude. All the different bodies, ages, and tempos, sweating together to the sound of thumping bass and energizing instructions.
Medelgympa is both a performing arts event and a session of gympa. The audience is invited to participate, led by a live performer and through instructions in headphones. The performance can be played in English or Swedish and is suitable for adults, young people and seniors alike.
I’m thinking of you
I’m thinking of you takes place in public libraries and lets the participant discover or rediscover the library as a place. As a participant, you are invited to follow instructions through headphones, and interact with the library environment in both expected and unexpected ways. The performance offers a playful opportunity to look at one of our most important public spaces with new eyes, and a chance to make the library your own.
I’m thinking of you is played as a school performance for 10-15 year olds, but is also suitable for adults. The piece gives the audience an opportunity to have an artistic experience in the middle of everyday life. It will be available for individual lending for a five-year period at the various libraries participating in the project.
Post Wedding Depression
Post Wedding Depression is a breathtaking and generous performance for all ages. It explores lust, femininity, and the dream of being a bride. In a rampant costume drama, the dancers move through square dance, postmodern dance and foxtrot where everyone can join!
Post Wedding Depression is suitable for rooms other than the stage. It does well in public contexts, on festive occasions, in schoolyards, conferences, festivals, inaugurations, department stores, museums, etc. The performance can play for any audience, from children around 3 years old, to elders.