The performance dances for present & future worlds: exercises on becoming-with the other is a participatory site-specific dance performance by Polena Kolia Petersen and 7 female residents of Sundsvall aged from 26 to 72 years old. The performance was part of the 6 months research project female (with) space by Polena Kolia Petersen and Norrdans. The project explored on dance improvisation and instant movement composition developing relational scores that explored what spaces dancing creates for us to relate to other bodies in ways radically different from our status quo. Could what we experience through our dancing change how we go about our common presents and futures? The final performance of the project unfolded through structured dance improvisation in public spaces of Sundsvall as both a somaesthetic and political practice inviting the audience to sense what temporary yet transformative relations they are entangled in as spectators-participants and what desires for more sustainable futures together might surface. The audience was invited to follow the nomadic performance through the bookletrs and to leave their postcards with their wishes for more desirable and sustainable futures at the Culture House. The postcards were given to the local political committee. 


Participants / dancers: Anne Säfvenberg, Jill Taube, Karin Kämsby, Lina Lotta Lundberg, Pearl Mtembu, Pia Fridell, Rebecka Jensen, Polena Kolia Petersen

Creator, facilitator, researcher, dancer: Polena Kolia Petersen

Producer: Andreas Thorell

In collaboration and with support by Norrdans Dance Company.