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DUNKEL is a choreographic exploration of the voice as a visceral force, blurring the boundaries between bodies and sound. Created by Olivia Rivière and Lisen Pousette, the work delves into the acoustic and physical dimensions of growling, a technique that both grounds the voice deep in the body and propels it outward with ecstatic energy.
DUNKEL challenges conventional notions of the relational body and its voice. Through an expanded vocal practice, the performers engage in a collective soundscape where voices resonate beyond the individual, creating an entangled sonic and affective experience. Breath is transformed into an intimate form of expression, where growling oscillates between heaviness and lightness, aggression and tenderness, and is taken apart and intertwined with jarring notes and stretched sounds.
As a dense and haunting reverberation, DUNKEL embodies a more-than-one voice – an echo returning not as mere repetition, but as something transformative. DUNKEL is a performance that reaches out for the vast and embraces the falling.
Premiere: MDT, 2022.
Performances:
Dansehallerne, Copenhagen
Ice Hot Nordic Festival, Oslo
ImPulsTanz 8:tension Young Choreographer Series, Vienna
Roskilde Festival Arts & Activism Program, Roskilde
Choreography: Lisen Pousette & Olivia Rivière
Performed by Lisen Pousette, Olivia Rivière, Jennie Bergsli, Be Heintzman Hope, Karis Zidore, Peter Schaerrebeck Hansen, Marie-Louise Stentebjerg.
Sound design: Kristian Alexander
Music: Susanne Cleworth (Xuri)
Light design: Alba Rask and Cristoffer Lloyd
Costume: Lisen Pousette and Olivia Rivière (in collaboration with Liselotte Bramstång)
Co-production: MDT, Dansehallerne and Aaben Dans
Residency support: Institutet
With support from: Statens Kunstfond, Kulturrådet, Augustinus Fonden, William Demant Fonden and Knud Højgaards Fond
Sceneblog / DUNKEL (2026)