A warm and bubbly performance, about discovery and mischievous dots

About bubbling dots and round sounds
About black holes and mischievous spots
About inside and outside
About smallness and bigness
About you and me, mine and yours
About big dot, little dot

With inspiration from the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s universe of dots, Memory Wax invites you to a suggestive dance performance. Together we discover the small in the big and the big in the small. We dare to step into the unknown where creativity and play are our lifelines. They take us forward, backward, inward and outward. We get to know ourselves and our surrounding world, our own fantastic universe.

The performance is created in collaboration with Svedala municipality’s libraries and their project “Read with all senses”. A project that aims to investigate how children’s language and imagination can be nourished by stories and experiences. What happens when they get to experience dance, music and art, and how they think when they themselves get to process what they have seen or heard in their own creative process.

Supported by: Swedish Arts Council, Malmö stad and Region Skåne.
In collaboration with Svedala Municipality Libraries and In-discourse.

When curiosity takes over and the small room transforms into big adventures

What is this and what is that? Daniel wonders while he discovers that imagination is everywhere and in everything. All is possible when the ordinary turns into dance.

My Little Big Room is a solo in mini format for children between 2 and 5 years of age. The performance can be played almost anywhere and it invites the audience to come close.

It starts with Daniel waking up, because that’s how it usually starts.
“What is this?”, Daniel wonders.
“Well Daniel”, you think, “It is your quilt!”
Or, is it really?

Is it the quilt that shakes, crumbles and brakes? Aha, it’s the game that awakes!
A pillow that becomes a willow? A mattress that turns magically into a fortress?
To the land of imagination we go! Daniel, start to row!

Supported by the Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the City of Malmö and Barnens scen

– about vulnerability and rustling paper

In Paper Swallow we are inspired by the power and fragility of a paper. How can a flat piece of paper become alive and magical and create stories? In Paper Swallow we dive into the power of creativity, the trust in one’s own journey and the feeling of vulnerability. Here the dance explores where objects end and the soul begins.

The title Paper Swallow stands for freedom and opportunities and the paper itself – a symbol of both vulnerability and creativity.

We welcome you on a poetic journey of discovery. The dancer and the paper become companions on a path where anything can happen, where play and curiosity can take place but also the gravity of life. Together they create a vivid story, which lets the imagination show the way and opens doors to the magical.

The performance explores the magic of paper, how something so simple and everyday can be brought to life and become something completely new. It touches on themes such as identity, daring to be yourself and the simplicity, but also the power of creativity.

Just as the paper comes to life and transforms in the dance, the bird also carries the idea of ​​transformation and freedom. Birds have always had a prominent position in different cultures and mythologies around the world. Through their ability to move freely between earth and sky, birds have become powerful symbols of freedom, life, death and transformation. In the traditions of many indigenous people, they have a central importance, as they are often seen as a connection between the physical and spiritual worlds, between dreams and reality. The crane in Japan stands for fidelity, love and a happy life. The dove carries the message of peace in many cultures, while the swallow has come to symbolize homecoming, trust and the beginning of something new.

The performance sparks ideas on how you can continue to work at home or in the classroom, for example by making artworks in paper and cardboard or origami folding. An experience that also creates the opportunity for conversations about feelings, creativity and identity.

Supported by the Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne, the City of Malmö.
Thank you to Barnens scen and Dansstationen

Shapes – life in a blink of an eye

Shapes is a multifaceted performance about how the moments in life shifts, revealing the contradictory need in mankind of both belonging and freedom. Its a poetic piece exploring the relationships between shapes and concepts to identify patterns, finding meaning and create relations.   Shapes challenge the idea about us and them by molding the common existential need to form your own journey and acknowledge your narrative.

The intimate interplay and unaffected motions between the dancers creates an engaging performance.

We have had an international collaboration with the Cuban dance company Danza Teatro Retazos since 2006. Together we utilize our company’s cultural and geographical differences using the astonishing ability to communicate the global language of motion and dance – celebrating the human paradox in its state of being and the uncharted future.

Shapes is the third major production we made together with Danza Teatro Retazos and it had its premiere in Havanna 2018.

The year after, in 2019 we celebrated 15th anniversary as a dance company and as a apart of the jubilee we toured with Shapes in Sweden in collaboration with Riksteatern Skåne, Skånes Dansnoder Kommunsamverkan, Riksteatern Östergötland and DANSISTAN in Stockholm.

During the tour we had the opportunity to do workshops with the audience. Shapes was also shown as a school performance for youngsters from age of thirteen.

During fall 2021 Shapes is touring with Dansnät Sverige.

Supported by the Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne and the City of Malmö.

To start over, unveil and stay in what is, in a sincere dialogue between introvert and extrovert, motion and silence, Breathe (Andas) approaches unspoken secrets. Thoughts and memories create poetic stringency in persistently changing landscapes, in a constantly changing existence.

The performance is created with inspiration from Ingmar Bergman’s cinematic universe.

Memory Wax is supported yearly by Malmö Culture Committee, Region Skåne and the Swedish Arts Council. Breathe was created in collaboration with The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, Danscentrum Syd and Barnens scen.

A playful, poetic and powerful dance duet with two men.

INSIDE OUT also invites you to a personal journey from the bubbling moments to dark and complex emotions. Who is outside and who is inside?

The meeting between Daniel and Jonas is based on the square wooden frames’ strong possibilities and limitations. About wordless communication, the incredible power of the imagination and daring to slow down in a society that otherwise just rushes on.

An experience that creates opportunities for open conversations about friendship, integrity, boundaries, spirituality and norm-breaking questions.

Do not try to understand – come and experience!

Supported by the Swedish Arts Council, Region Skåne and the City of Malmö.

An evocative and life-affirming dance performance that explores the dynamics of the group and the importance of play

In PLAYGROUND, group dynamics and the individual’s role in meeting others are explored. The performance alludes to the important importance of play in all aspects of life. In harmony with captivating moments, the joy of movement and changing everyday objects, we break fixed patterns and invite new encounters, new opportunities.

PLAYGROUND is made in collaboration with the Cuban dance company Danza Teatro Retazos in Cuba and we have deepened the production’s themes in the countries’ very different starting points but with play as a common platform. A large part of the work’s development has taken place through interactive workshops with various associations/groups and individuals in various locations in Scania and the equivalent in Cuba. The purpose of these is to create a safe environment where we can explore together how our behavior changes depending on different constellations and situations in which we find ourselves.

The production is a co-production and part of Dans i Nord’s regional tour Moving Norrbotten, which will visit all 14 municipalities of Norrbotten after the premiere. PLAYGROUND will also tour during the fall of 2024 in collaboration with Malmö Kulturell Allemansrätt, Dansstationen, Ängelholms Riksteaterförening, Ystad kulturgaranti, SEGNI New Generations festival in Italy and Danza Xixón in Spain

Supported by: Barbro Osher Foundation, Swedish Arts Council, Malmö stad and Region Skåne

___________________________________________________________________________

Playground WhatsApp series –
CREATIVE WORKPROCESS DURING THE PANDEMIC

In the spring and summer of 2021, Memory Wax and the Cuban dance company Danza Teatro Retazos started a WhatsApp group. As we could not meet due to the pandemic, we wanted to find new ways so that we could continue working on the performance PLAYGROUND at a distance. The dancers in Cuba receive various exercises and instructions from Sweden. The exercises focus on the interaction between everyday places and objects, to create, find and express connections with as simple means as possible.

See samples of the process here:

Welcome to an imaginative journey through letter land, in a show that celebrates curiosity and the desire for discovery.

Here we meet two friends who aptly portray various letters through movement and sound. The characters try and fail, and are not afraid to make mistakes. ABC is a performance for everybody who has just started to explore the endless possibilities of reading and writing, so join us on this adventure, filled with dance, music and surprises. Playful props and scenography make the experience both magical and educational.

Supported by: Barnens scen, Konstnärsnämnden, Kulturrådet, Kultur Skåne, Malmö City and Sparbanksstiftelsen Skåne.

Claroscuro is a dance performance curiously investigating shapes, fantasy and the contrast between light and darkness.

Can we see light and colors even when we close our eyes? Do objects and colors appear differently in another light? Join our exploration celebrating curiosity, the secrets of ordinary objects and the power of change – where something comes to an end something else begins.

The title is put together by the two Spanish words claro (light) and oscuro (darkness). It refers to the contrasts of colors used by painters to enhance or give focus to specific parts of a painting.

Supported by Kulturrådet, Kultur Skåne and Malmö Kulturnämnd.
A special thanks to Barnens scen, Danscentrum Syd and Teater 23.

In the performance Fly Me to the Moon, community, acceptance and imagination can be space crafts that can take us all the way up to the moon. Fly Me to the Moon wants to pay attention to what we have in common. Are there limits or are they just something we create? Do we dare to dream and continue to create, no matter our age, experience and background?

Through text, poetry, music and dance, we would like to put existential questions in focus in a playful way.

What else can we create together?

Supported by: Barnens scen, The Swedish Arts Council, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Region Skåne and Malmö City.