Dalija Acin Thelander

Choreography, stage, costume and light design: Dalija Acin Thelander

Performed by: Ana Ignjatovic Zagorac, Mladen Vukovic, Djordje Zivadinovic-Grgur, Filip Stankovski

Music: Goran Simonoski

Video design: Filip Mikic

Produced by: Little Theatre Dusko Radovic, Belgrade, Serbia

Without movement and motion there would be no world. Without forces, energies, sensations and feelings, there would be no movement and motion. Without motion there would be no encounter Some movements are visible, some are invisible Some forces are visible, some are invisible. Some encounters are visible, some are invisible. But both the ones we see and the ones we don't see - we all feel, in an indescribable way.

The performance is inspired by visible and invisible forces that move macrocosms and microcosms, forces that set rituals in motion, movements and flows that move bodies, feelings, encounters, that create communities. The sensation that movement and motion create in us and in the world. The performance affirms beauty of change, flux and flow, the ephemerality of sensation..

Photos: Uros Gajic, Milica Saletic, Beka Abdulovic

Choreography and overall design: Dalija Acin Thelander
In collaboration with and performed by: Noah Hellwig, Jimmie Larsson, pavleheidler, Jilda Hallin; Music: Thomas Jeker; Digital animation and interactive technologies: Filip Mikic

Immersive durational dance performance for babies and/or neurodiverse/children with disabilities up to 10 years old

Supported by: Menų spaustuvė/Arts Printing House (Vilnius, Lithuania), Kulturhuset Dieselverkstaden (Stockholm, Sweden), Muzeum Susch / Art Stations Foundation CH (Susch, Switzerland), LaSala (Sabadell, Spain)…

*video links below the text

Fields of Tender is an enchanting, playful, dance performance, which immerses you in an imaginary world of tenderness, affection and love. Within this awe-inspiring, sensual world, the extravagant and peculiar events interlace with ethereal and gentle ones. The performance flow welcomes the audience's curiosity as well as provides them with a calm and intimate space for relaxation. The abundance of dance, music, sounds, extraordinary objects and interactive video projections fosters the audience togetherness, easefulness and empowerment. Fields of Tender caters to all senses and embraces every individual, inviting you to savor the performance on your own terms. It provides a variety of experiences for all types of perceptions and it welcomes all kinds of behaviors.

Across its extended duration, spectators are welcome to enter and exit at their leisure, fostering a fluid and personalized journey through this mesmerizing landscape of emotion and exploration.

The performance is being created within my three-year academic research project Towards sensuous ecologies, Rethinking ableism in choreographic and movement practices, supported by the Swedish Research Council and in affiliation with Stockholm University of arts / Dance department.

The performance/research is concerned with:

new transdisciplinary artistic methods that are attuned to neurodivergent perception, enabling the experience of communality, inclusiveness and empowerment through immersion, choreography and body practices

challenging the body politics of a dominant, normative culture and its blindness towards neurodiverse experience and embodied knowing

sensual relationships between all the bodies and the space, placing at its core kinaesthetic response and empathy, and affect

exploration of new ways of performance structuring which draws on the notion of liminality and on ‘open work’ as an artistic method for devising contingent, inherently unpredictable and unrepeatable performance structures and frames

the notion of encounter and sphere of inter-human relations that take place within immersive environment

the conception of space as a dynamic, relational concept, which underlines that performance space is a transient spatiotemporal network of forces, vectors and tensions, processual rather than stable and, crucially, experiential. Such approach favors decentred, nonhierarchical interplay in a shared space and assigns an emancipatory role to audience activation, underlining that there is no right way of looking at the world, nor any privileged place

an approach which reflects a redistribution of agency in performance, decenters the human agent and declines the central position of the performer

‘howness of time’ in relation to durational format and immersive environments

importance of integrated audience events, seen as the possibility of being destabilized by the ‘radical alterity of the other’, in perceiving the difference not as a threat but as a resource to question our own position in the world

immersion and interaction, as negotiated processes, can lead towards sensuous, ever-changing ecologies of an event comprised of ‘fluid aesthetic structures’.

..among many other….

The process is carried out in several phases, over the period of 2022-2024, trough residencies and performances, both in public venues and in special care schools.

Trailers and video documentation:

https://vimeo.com/792810205 / edit / at Arts Printing House, Vilnius, Lithuania, January 2023

https://vimeo.com/822493770 - 2 min trailer / at Dieselverstanden, Stockholm, Sweden, March 2023

https://vimeo.com/822495462 - 4 min trailer / at Dieselverstanden, Stockholm, Sweden, March 2023

https://vimeo.com/822498628 - edit 1 / at Dieselverstanden,Stockholm, Sweden, March 2023

https://vimeo.com/823288420 - edit 2 / at Dieselverstanden, Stockholm, Sweden, March 2023

Photos:

Dalija Acin Thelander

Rokas Snarskis

Krsto Vulović

Choreography and over-all design: Dalija Acin Thelander
In collaboration with and performed by: Neo Jialing, Chew En Shaw, Valerie Lim

Music Composer: Crystal Goh

Produced by: The Artground, Singapore

https://vimeo.com/768900859

The first phase of the online process with the dancers and installation set up took place from April 12th till May 20th 2021. Some parts of scenography/installation were hand-made in Stockholm and shipped, and some were produced in Singapore.

At The Heart Of It All

Concept and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
In collaboration with and performed by: dancer Noah Hellwig, Jilda Hallin, Stacey Aung, and baritone Karl Ackerfeldt
Music: Anja Djordjevic
Stage and light design: Markus Granqvist
Costumes and masks: Lena Lindgren
Text: Marina Steinmotrailer

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tZ0lpfx24Y

At The Heart Of It All is created for neurodiverse children wand integrated audience. It is set in a fascinating, constantly changing world - an imaginary journey that celebrates playfulness and imagination. Together with three dancers and one singer, the audience is immersed in a flux of spirited interplay of movement, songs and whispers within fantastical stage and costumes inspired by microscopic world. This out-of-ordinary performance proposes diverse sensory experiences for all types of perception and encourages curiosity, exploration as well as relaxation and contemplation, within a safe environment.

Photos Sören Vilks

Series of durational choreographed installation-based performances for a youngest neurodiverse and integrated audience

Choreography and overall design: Dalija Acin Thelander
In collaboration with and performed by: Noah Hellwig, Andrea Svensson, Josefine Larson Olin, Jimmie Larsson, Dalija Acin Thelander
Music: Thomas Jeker

Supported by: ccap / Hallen i Farsta (Stockholm Sweden), Bora Bora – Dance and Visual Theater (Århus, Denmark), LaSala (Sabadell, Spain), Kulturhuset Dieselverkstaden (Stockholm, Sweden)

Funded by Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm, Stockholm Region and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee

*

It’s a gathering.
It’s a celebration of being-in-the-world.
It’s a where the ‘time rests in itself, where it ‘deepens vertically’.
it’s a space for dwelling, directionless floating, contemplative lingering...
It’s where we find the ‘pleasure in welcoming the unknown’
In dAzzleMAZE, we surrender to reflection, glow and beauty.

dAzzleMAZE is installation-based, durational performance created primarily for the youngest audiences who relate to the world differently: neurodiverse children aged between 6 months to 3, as well as for neurotypical children up to 16 months old. In order to profoundly respond to the needs of its audience, the project is research based - structured as a sequenced, process-based framework and will be carried out through exploration with various audience groups, aiming to result in series of variable, but aesthetically related installations/performances that welcome integrated audience. Hence the project will yield a high extent of adaptability, rather than producing one fixed, the final form of the work.

The audience is invited to enjoy the performance freely and on their own terms. It provides various extents of experience for all types of perception with no judgment on eligible and ineligible behaviors (such as falling asleep, drifting away, isolating as well as social exchange, exhilaration, vocalizing etc).

The audience can choose to wear the costumes which are placed in the welcoming area, and which are aesthetically corresponding to costumes that performers wear. In this way, the sensation of togetherness is enhanced.

Within the several hours of performance duration (varies between 2 and 4h), the audience can come when they are ready, exit and re-enter during the show, and leave when it suits them the most.
*

The performance environment aims to challenge the conventional conception of aesthetics for this audience and will propose out-of the ordinary, communal experience and ambiance valuable for both adults and children. The multifaceted practice applied in this project focuses on the extents of interplay between the audience’s agency in correlation with the multi-directional interaction of the senses and sensuous interrelationship of body-mind-environment. Placing at its center the sentient body and intersubjectivity,
with the emphasis on the present moment, this project celebrates the difference and diversity. It proposes an open-ended experience that does not set fixed goals but rather invites the audience to discover new forms of being-with-the-world. The audience is integral to the experiential heart of the work and central to its form and aesthetic.

This project is related to my long-term research which concerns the investigation of the notion of agency in choreographic practices for babies and youngest children, approached from the sensorial-perceptual perspective. It employs choreography as the organization of attention and asserts decentralized spectatorship, emphasizing the importance of individual consciousness, freedom, and choice. It aims to contribute to the production and distribution of innovative knowledge in performing arts practices for the neurodiverse audiences and to further the developments within the field of Theatre for Young Audience. It attempts to diversify current thinking and to advocate the importance of emancipatory spectatorship for this marginalized audience, affirming the theatre experience as a place of possibility rather than a limitation.

durational performance/installation for babies 3-15 months

Choreography, lights, stage design, costumes: Dalija Acin Thelander

Music by Thomas Jeker

Performed by and in collaboration with Jilda Hallin, Andrea Deres, Brittanie Brown

Produced by Dansstationen Malmo

“The sixth day of the moon” is choreographed installation for the younges audience, which explores the possibilities of an event-world rather than an object world - something dynamic and relatively unpredictable. It aims at diverse sensory experiences and a heightened sensitivity towards the immediate physicality of the world by interlacing movement, dance, music, visual art and light design.
The performance invites its audience to engage in playful and open-ended experience that does not present concrete goals but rather expects them to explore and discover a new form of being - in- the-world. It performance/installation affirms the idea of place as sensed, place as sensation - space as audile-tactile or kinaesthetic sensory universe in which proprioception is key.
During the performance the audience is free to move, enjoy multiple perspectives, explore, be active and/or relax. Furthermore, in order to respect the individual needs of both babies and adults, as well as the time needed to constitute the experience, the audience is invited to enjoy the installation upon their personal needs - to arrive at the time which suits them the best and stay as long as they like to, within the 2 hours running time.
Essential for the concept is notion of audience's agency in correlation with multi-directional interaction of the senses and sensuous interrelationship of body-mind-environment. Safe and stimulating performance environments is conceived to generate an interrelational ecology, providing unique conditions for a wide variety of interchange and communication. The installation environment is designed to challenge conventional conception of aesthetics for such audience by proposing to it’s audience out-of ordinary, communal experience and
ambience.

contemporary dance performance for children 1-3yo

Concept, choreography, stage and light design: Dalija Acin Thelander

Costume design: Dalija Acin Thelander and Anna Kjelsdotter

Produced by: Xi'an Qujiang Meriton Cultural Development Company for Children's Theatre

Premiere: July 19th 2019

The creation of “The hundreds transformations arise” is inspired by Chinese traditional arts and philosophy.

Some inspiration came from Shan Hai Jing book and it’s mysterious nature and creatures. Some inspiration came from Chinese traditional painting – its emphasis on movement, vitality spirit as well as refusal of single perspective / vanishing point, especially on moving perspective which allows the viewer's eye travels around the scenery.

It is also inspired by the importance of harmony in Chinese philosophy - harmony between different people and harmony between Man and nature, as well as by the concepts on Chinese discourses of music “cosmos-music-mind correspondences.”

This performance proposes to the youngest children and their adults an exceptional immersive and multi-sensorial artistic experience. It invites audience to freely move, enjoy multiple perspectives, explore, be active and/or relax - choosing the ways to engage with the proposed environment. The installation/performance environment is designed to challenge usual conceptions of aesthetics and theatre for the youngest audience and it affirms the idea of movement and of place as sensed, place as sensation. It proposes perceptual and kinesthetic journey constituted of a variety of stimuli, engendering first hand, direct experience which heightens awareness of perception as embodied and interdependent

with its surroundings.

This performance gives advantage to spontaneity, risk and 'open end' structure in opposite to usual theatrical conventions. It aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years, in the context of both artistic and social experience.

durational performance/installation for babies 0-12 months

Concept, choreography, lights, costumes: Dalija Acin Thelander

Music by Qillannguaq Q Berthelsen
Installation / stage design: Dalija Acin Thelander with Lightforms by Linas Kutavičius

Performed by Šeiko šokio teatras: Marija Ivaškevičiūtė, Inga Kuznecova, Oksana Griaznova, Mantas Černeckas, Erikas Žilaitis, Agnija Šeiko
Programing by Justas Bø

Co-produced by Šeiko šokio teatras, Klapieda, Lithiania and Dalija Acin Thelander

trailer: https://vimeo.com/353183160

Lumi is conceived as a surreal, celestial-like, minimalistic performance/installation.

It invites its audience to wander and explore the movement of lights and dancers, to drift among luminous objects, to surrender to curious sensations.

Lumi explores the possibilities of an event-world rather than an object world - something more dynamic and relatively unpredictable. It aims at diverse sensory experiences and a heightened sensitivity towards the immediate physicality of the world by interlacing movement, dance, music, visual art and light design. The performance/installation affirms the idea of place as sensed, place as sensation - space as audile-tactile or kinaesthetic sensory universe in which proprioception is key.

During the performance the audience is free to move, enjoy multiple perspectives, explore, be active and/or relax. Furthermore, in order to respect the individual needs of both babies and adults, as well as the time needed to constitute the experience, the audience is invited to enjoy the installation upon their personal needs - to arrive at the time which suits them the best and stay as long as they like to, within the 4 hours running time.

Essential for the concept is notion of audience's agency in correlation with multi-directional interaction of the senses and sensuous interrelationship of body-mind-environment. Safe and stimulating performance environments is conceived to generate an interrelational ecology, providing unique conditions for a wide variety of interchange and communication. The installation environment is designed to challenge conventional conception of aesthetics for babies by proposing to it’s audience out-of ordinary experience and ambience.

Photos by D. Matvejev

Concept, choreography, installation, lights by Dalija Acin Thelander

Performed by: Aopala Banneriee, Sabita Shaw / Sangram Mukhopadhyay, Sayan Mukhopadhyay

Music: Aakash Saha

Produced by ThinkArts Kolakata, India

Premiere: Sept 9th 2018 at Kolakata Centre for Creativity

Into The Daydreaming is performance for babies 3-15 months, which was created within the short-therm process in collaboration with performers/dancers and composer from Kolkata.

Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Into The Daydreaming invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with the arts.

durational performance/installation for babies 0-12 months

Concept, choreography, light and stage design: Dalija Acin Thelander

In collaboration and performed by: Noah Hellwig and Dalija Acin Thelander

Music: Thomas Jeker (CH)

Supported by: Swedish Arts Grants Council, City of Stockholm, Stockholm Country Council, Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Seanse (NO), WELD, Stockholm

Running time: six hours with one hour break

Premiere: March 14th, WELD, Stockholm, Sweden

Trailers: https://vimeo.com/266064420, https://vimeo.com/266068427

The Garden Of Spirited Minds proposes to babies and their adults exceptional immersive and multi-sensorial artistic experience. It invites audience to freely move, enjoy multiple perspectives, explore, be active and/or relax - choosing the ways to engage with the proposed environment. The installation/performance environment is designed to challenge usual conceptions of aesthetics for babies and it affirms the idea of place as sensed, place as sensation - space as audile-tactile or kinaesthetic sensory universe in which proprioception is key.

The dense installation setting is inspired by organic forms and provides out-of-ordinary esthetic experience, interlacing movement and dance, music and sound, visual and tactile stimulation as well as natural smells. Variety of forms and their positions in the space are stimulating the audience's curiosity, encouraging the exploration as well as providing the calm and intimate space for relaxation.

Essential for the concept of the The Garden Of Spirited Minds is notion of audience's agency in correlation with multi-directional interaction of the senses and sensuous interrelationship of body-mind-environment. The audience is challenged to reorganise their repertoire of responses in accordance to unfolding events. With this approach, I am aiming for a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.

The role of the care-taker is emphasized as adults are invited to support and follow their child and to share the experience. Safe and stimulating performance environments is conceived to generate an interrelational ecology, providing unique conditions for a wide variety of interchange and communication.

In order to respect the individual needs of both babies and adults, as well as the time needed to constitute the experience, the audience is invited to enjoy the installation upon their personal needs - to arrive at the time which suits them the best and stay as long as they like to, within the 6 hours running time.

contemporary dance and opera performance for babies 3-18 months

Concept and choreography: Dalija Aćin Thelander
Music: Anja Djordjevic
Scenography and light design: Jens Sethzman
Dancers: Allyson Way Wanselius, Pontus Ax Sundset Granat, Noah Hellwig
Opera singer: Maja Frydén
Costume: Anna Kjellsdotter
Text: Mariana Steinmo
Produced by Kungliga Operan, Stockholm, Sweden
Premiere: November 18th 2017

Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CCROv9Uh-k&feature=share

You are invited to wander trough and be a part of ever-changing enchanted worlds, to join the rituals, celebrations, mysterious processions, together with those who are devoted to guard those worlds, build them, alter and celebrate. In togetherness we will dwell, drift off, wonder, loose and find each other over and over again.

Myriad av världar invites babies and their adults to sensorially saturated experience generated within immersive, installation based environment. Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the performance. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.
Performance asserts immediacy of personal experience, by proposing interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, making it artistically valuable for both babies and adults.
It empasizes the importance of individual who experiences the art not in transcendent or existential isolation but as part of collective or community.

contemporary dance performance for babies 3-18 months  

Concept and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander

Music by Anja Djordjevic

Performed by Qin Chenhui, Li Xiang, Yan Mengying, Zhang Han, Qin Jiayu, Luo Sining
Stage design by Dalija Acin Thelander

Produced by: Xi'an Qujiang Meriton Cultural Development Company for Children's Theatre 

Premiere Dec 13th 2017

The performance environment is designed to challenge usual conceptions of aesthetics for babies. Constituted of a number of interconnected diverse segments it spreads in the space without the usual audience-stage division. Each segment is proposing a different constellation of content (objects, sounds, movements, lights) emphasizing a particular type of sensory stimuli. Events occurring within each segment coincide with other, overlap, or happen in a particular follow-order, in relation to a non-linear dramaturgy of the performance.

Dance is proposing a distinctive perspective of the bodies in motion and interrelation, while presence of the dancers affirms the shared experience and interaction. The variety of objects is made from the materials which provide diverse sensations. They incite both sensation and movement, and while being interlaced with other elements, contribute to the navigation of the perception and interplay. Music is projected three-dimensionally - each source of sound transmits one particular part of the composition, situating them within installation set, in various positions.

Sensescapes aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and explore possibilities of choreographic practices, with the aim to provide the youngest audience a non conventional encounter with art. It strives to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years as well as to introduce a broader understanding of dance and choreography, in the context of both artistic and social experience.
 

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months
 
Concept, choreography and installation design: Dalija Acin Thelander
Music: Qillannguaq Q Berthelsen
Performed by: Nukakkuluk Kreutzmann, Salik G Lennert, Avi Louise Petersen and Miki Petrussen Assistant: Varste Mikailsen Mathæussen
Technical realization: Naleraq Eugenius
 
Co-produced by: Nuuk Nordisk Kulturfestival
Premiere: October 17th, 2017, Katuaq, Nuuk Nordisk Kulturfestival
Supported by Nordens Institut i Grønland

video: https://www.facebook.com/nuuknordisk/videos/1998410107102011/?hc_ref=ARQMge1XdP-eg0j1qzBE5ix_1tjak_G7Iyj7Zta4VLbgMJscCHl-hp0-Hs60zchXDDE&pnref=story

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-16 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept, space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
Performed by: Bernice Lee, Chelsea Crothers, Neo Jialing, Sarah Oh
Music: Serene Tan (Stan); Sound Design: StanxSoap
Production Stage Manager: Mirabel Neo; Production Assistant: Daya Esa

Produced by The Artground - The Curious Place To Be, Singapore, Republic Singapore
Premiere: July 8th

https://vimeo.com/247623611
parents review: https://mummyfique.com/review-baby-space-artground/

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-16 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

interactive contemporary dance performance for children 3-5

Concept and choreography: Dalija Aćin Thelander (RS/SE) and Keren Levi (IL/NL)
Music:  Tian Rottveel (NL)
In collaboration with and performed by: Ellen Söderhult, Noah Hellwig, Caroline Byström
Premiere: Weld, Stockholm December 3rd 2016

The performance is staged in Poland, Serbia and Sweden, with local performers.

Supported by: The Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm, Stockholm Country Council, Ministry of Culture of Republic Serbia

Co-produced by: Station Service for Contemporary Dance (Belgrade, Serbia), Little Theatre Dusko Radovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Arts Station Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk (Poznan, Poland), Weld (Stockholm, Sweden), De Stilte - Theatre for children (Breda, Holland)

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/195297114

Up Side Down is an interactive performance which proposes to our youngest audience an involving and interactive experience of contemporary dance and visual arts. It invites children into a shared adventure, which they can spectate, activate and influence. A perceptual and kinesthetic journey constituted of a variety of stimuli, engendering first hand, direct experience which heightens awareness of perception as embodied and interdependent with its surroundings. The performance setting affirms the minimalistic aesthetics, endorses imagination and values the simplicity and inspiration found in the every day objects and actions.

Up Side Down gives advantage to spontaneity, risk and 'open end' structure in opposite to usual theatrical conventions. It aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years, in the context of both artistic and social experience.

The project's priority is to enable frequent accessibility for children and therefore it will be produced in several countries, by partners who share this vision.

Up Side Down is developed within a series of residencies supported by international partners. Each of the partners involved in the production supports the work with the residency involving local dancers. Performance is produced and presented in each of the partners countries and will be continuously made accessible to the audience. Premiere: Poznan, Poland on February 20th; Belgrade, Serbia March on 5th, Stockholm, Sweden on December 3rd; Breda, Holland in June 2017.

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept, space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
Performed by: LIU Yanan and WANG Shaojun; LI Haocheng and ZHU Rui
Music: XIAO Ying

Produced by Art Space for Kids (A.S.K.) Shanghai, China
Premiere: October 13th, 2016 in the frame of China Shanghai International Arts Festival, Forum and Performing Arts Fair

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-16 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept, space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
Performed by: Ai Osawa and Maho Harada; Manami Doi and Eriko Otani
Music: Takuji Aoyagi
Poetry and voice: Kenjiro Otani
Produced by  Japan union of theatrical companies for children and young people (JIENKYO)
Premiere: July 15th in Tokyo, Japan

https://vimeo.com/192646927

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-18 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

interactive contemporary dance performance for children 3-5

Concept and choreography: Dalija Aćin Thelander (RS/SE) and Keren Levi (IL/NL)
Music:  Tian Rottveel (NL)

The performance is staged in Poland, Serbia and Sweden, with local performers.

Serbian production is performed by: Milisa Pisic, Jovana Rakic -Kiselcic and Vladimir Arsenijevic

Co-produced by: Station Service for Contemporary Dance (Belgrade, Serbia), Little Theatre Dusko Radovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Arts Station Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk (Poznan, Poland), Weld (Stockholm, Sweden), De Stilte - Theatre for children (Breda, Holland)

Supported by: Arts Grants Sweden, Stockholm Stad, Ministry of Culture of Republic Serbia,

Up Side Down is an interactive performance which proposes to our youngest audience an involving and interactive experience of contemporary dance and visual arts. It invites children into a shared adventure, which they can spectate, activate and influence. A perceptual and kinesthetic journey constituted of a variety of stimuli, engendering first hand, direct experience which heightens awareness of perception as embodied and interdependent with its surroundings. The performance setting affirms the minimalistic aesthetics, endorses imagination and values the simplicity and inspiration found in the every day objects and actions.

Up Side Down gives advantage to spontaneity, risk and 'open end' structure in opposite to usual theatrical conventions. It aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years, in the context of both artistic and social experience.

The project's priority is to enable frequent accessibility for children and therefore it will be produced in several countries, by partners who share this vision.

Up Side Down is developed within a series of residencies supported by international partners. Each of the partners involved in the production supports the work with the residency involving local dancers. Performance is produced and presented in each of the partners countries and will be continuously made accessible to the audience. Premiere: Poznan, Poland on February 20th; Belgrade, Serbia March on 5th, Stockholm, Sweden on December 4th; Breda, Holland 2017.
 

interactive contemporary dance performance for children 3-5

Concept and choreography: Dalija Aćin Thelander (RS/SE) and Keren Levi (IL/NL)
Music:  Tian Rottveel (NL)

The performance is staged in Poland, Serbia and Sweden, with local performers.

Polish production performed by: Dorota Michalak, Krystyna LAMA Szydłowska, Zofia Tomczyk / Premiered on February 20th

Co-produced by: Arts Station Foundation by Grazyna Kulczyk (Poznan, Poland), Station Service for Contemporary Dance (Belgrade, Serbia), Little Theatre Dusko Radovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Weld (Stockholm, Sweden), De Stilte - Theatre for children (Breda, Holland)

Supported by: Arts Grants Sweden, Stockholm Stad, Ministry of Culture of Republic Serbia,

Trailer https://vimeo.com/157361109

Up Side Down is an interactive performance which proposes to our youngest audience an involving and interactive experience of contemporary dance and visual arts. It invites children into a shared adventure, which they can spectate, activate and influence. A perceptual and kinesthetic journey constituted of a variety of stimuli, engendering first hand, direct experience which heightens awareness of perception as embodied and interdependent with its surroundings. The performance setting affirms the minimalistic aesthetics, endorses imagination and values the simplicity and inspiration found in the every day objects and actions.

Up Side Down gives advantage to spontaneity, risk and 'open end' structure in opposite to usual theatrical conventions. It aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years, in the context of both artistic and social experience.

The project's priority is to enable frequent accessibility for children and therefore it will be produced in several countries, by partners who share this vision.

Up Side Down is developed within a series of residencies supported by international partners. Each of the partners involved in the production supports the work with the residency involving local dancers. Performance is produced and presented in each of the partners countries and will be continuously made accessible to the audience. Premieres: Poznan, Poland on February 20th; Belgrade, Serbia March on 5th, Stockholm, Sweden on December 4th; Breda, Holland 2017.

contemporary dance performance for babies 3-18 months

Concept and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander; In collaboration with and performed by Kristine Slettevold, Josefine Larson Olin, Peter Mills; Music by Anja Djordjevic;
Stage design by Dalija Acin Thelander in collaboration with Erik Annerborn and Jens Sethzman; Costume design by Erik Annerborn; Lights by Dalija Acin Thelander

Premiere: June 2-7th 2015 in Moderna Musset, Stockholm, Sweden
Co-produced by Weld (Stockholm) and Kulturhuset Spira (Jönköping), Sweden
Supported by Swedish Arts Council, City of Stockholm and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpRSJlpt23A

Sensescapes is a performance which proposes a choreographed, interactive and multi-sensory experience to babies 3-18 months old and their care-takers. It is conceived as an installation based environment, consisted of visual, tactile and auditory elements, which induces interplay of the audience's physical movement and sensory input. Sensescapes unfolds a series of carefully composed, interconnected events which aim to involve its audience, trigger their curiosity and encourage their agency in landscape rich in stimuli.

The performance concept and contents are created in accordance with the latest developmental research concerning perceptual, cognitive, and social abilities in infants.

The performance environment is designed to challenge usual conceptions of aesthetics for babies. Constituted of a number of interconnected diverse segments it spreads in the space without the usual audience-stage division. Each segment is proposing a different constellation of content (objects, sounds, movements, lights) emphasizing a particular type of sensory stimuli. Events occurring within each segment coincide with other, overlap, or happen in a particular follow-order, in relation to a non-linear dramaturgy of the performance.

Dance is proposing a distinctive perspective of the bodies in motion and interrelation, while presence of the dancers affirms the shared experience and interaction. The variety of objects is made from the materials which provide diverse sensations. They incite both sensation and movement, and while being interlaced with other elements, contribute to the navigation of the perception and interplay. Music is projected three-dimensionally - each source of sound transmits one particular part of the composition, situating them within installation set, in various positions.

Sensescapes aspires to challenge the concepts of performing arts for children and explore possibilities of choreographic practices, with the aim to provide the youngest audience a non conventional encounter with art. It strives to promote the importance of artistic experiences in early years as well as to introduce a broader understanding of dance and choreography, in the context of both artistic and social experience.

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept, space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
Performed by: Ana Ignjatovic Zagorac and Milica Pisic
Music: Anja Djordjevic
Poetry: Maja Pelevic
Voice: Vladislava Djordjevic

Produced by Station Service for Contemporary Dance and Gallery 12 HUB
Premiere: January 16th, Belgrade, Serbia


Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-18 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept, space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander
Music: Anja Djordjevic
Poetry: Maja Pelevic
Voice:  Vladislava Djordjevic

Produced by Åben Dans, Roskilde, Denmark
Premiered at SWOP Festival 2014

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-18 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way.

contemporary dance performance for children 2-4

Concept, choreography ad stage design: Dalija Acin Thelander

Music: Anja Dordjevic

Dramaturgical support: Maja Pelevic

Performed by Bitef Dance Company: Milica Pisic, Nevena Jovanovic Luka Mihovilovic
Produced by Station service for contemporary dance and Bitef Theatre, Belgrade, Serbia in November 2014

'The dream of a yellow sock' is a story about a yellow sock dreaming an extraordinary dream, filled with unusual creatures and scapes – the dream in which here wishes come true. Sock and her friends become free to move the way they want and go wherever they wish instead of being conditioned by the one who is wearing them...

Performance concept deals both with abstract and narrative and does not have a linear dramaturgy. It proposes to children specific visual approach, alters perception, stimulates imagination and introduces contemporary dance. It brings a special focus on relation objects - movement.

watch video: https://vimeo.com/80314713

choreographed installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept,  space design and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander 

Poetry by: Malina Przeszluga,

Music by: Wojciech Morawski

Performed by: Marta Romaszkan, Kacper Lipinski / Monika Kiwak, Dusko Stamenic

Produced by Arts Station Foundation, Poznan (PL)

 > Watch video: http://vimeo.com/70481824

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-16 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

Contemporary dance performance, which is taking place in one of the segments of the Baby Space installation, proposes a sequence of choreographed movement/dance materials, along with music and poetry, created for the project. Performed by two dancers, in a gentle proximity to its audience, it concerns the ongoing, mutually influential exchange between the dancers and the audience.

Choreography is based on heightened immediacy and dialogical approach, taking care that dancers are in constant negotiation between carrying out the scores of movement material and being in open dialogue with the audience, responsive and sensible to movements and inputs coming from the child.
In accordance with theories of babies' specific 'lantern' consciousness, the performances induce the interplay of audiences' physical movement and sensory input, operating on the basis of both generated and directed attention -babies  looking at each other, at the performers, at the structures in the space, at their caregivers, often all at the same time.

Performance proposes movement in the space as a way of experiencing and as such it provides a multi-modal and affective experience of both child and care-taker.
Audience is invited to spend additional time in Baby Space installation setting after the performance. The 'open space' proposed to babies and their care-givers to enjoy the shared experience in any chosen way

site specific audio-visual installation for babies 0-18 months

Concept and space design: Dalija Acin Thelander

Music: Anja Djordjevic.

Poetry: Maja Pelevic

Produced by Mixer festival, Belgrade and Station Service for contemporary dance, Belgrade, Serbia

Baby Space offers an exceptional artistic and social experience to babies 0-16 months old and their care-givers. Interlacing contemporary dance, music and visual arts within an immersive, installation based environment, Baby Space invites its audience to a sensorially saturated experience and proposes an exceptional encounter with art.

Diverse artistic practices are fused into the spirited interplay, generating a unique and intriguing substance of the installation and performance. The environment of Baby Space insist on immediacy of personal experience, phenomenological approach to perception and aesthetic uniqueness, making the experience artistically valuable for both babies and adults. It's landscape, rich in stimuli, triggers the curiosity of the youngest ones and encourages interaction and exploration.

contemporary dance performance for babies 6-18 months

Concept and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander

Dramaturgy and poetry: Maja Pelevic

Stage and costume design: Dalija Acin Thelander and Zorana Petrov

Music: Anja Djordjevic

Performed by: Ana Dubljević, Ana Ignjatović- Zagorac, Dalija Acin Thelander, Vladislava Djordjevic

Produced by: Little Theatre Dusko Radovic, Belgrade, Serbia

Performance Certain very important matters was created with a wish to stimulate the perception of the youngest audience and their interactivity using dance, music and poetry, in an ambience / installation quite out of the ordinary. Unlike customary narratives, performances, fairy tales and stories for children, which mostly imply the solution of some problem, conflict or overcoming of an obstacle, this performance strives to speak of love, solely in the affirmative and stimulates the senses through a specific visual and auditory experience.

docu-impro session for children 4 +

Choreography: Dalija Aćin Thelander

Performed by: Dalija Aćin Thelander, Milan Marković (real time intervention with audio material)

Voice: Dalija Aćin Thelander’s daughter

Video material: Dalija Aćin Thelander, Dalija Aćin Thelander’s daughter

Back up: Walking Theory (Bojan Đorđev, Siniša Ilić, Ana Vujanović)

Produced by: Station Service for contemporary dance and Little Theatre Dusko Radovic, Belgrade, Serbia

Unique, intimate and provocative performance Who would want a mom like mine?  is based on a review of various aspects of relations between mother and child, from the perspective of the child as constantly present "critical eye". The play especially focuses on facing Dalija Acin Thelander simultaneous position as an author and as a mother. The complexity of this situation in life, brings to the stage following questions: When are you a parent, who has the rights to their own life choices: what do you want from friends, careers, emotional relationships, life style ...?

The author's decision to produce a play with her daughter speaks of the need to review a mother and child relationship and analyze the ways far away from well-known and safe position and role.

The play is based on documentary material - home video from everyday life of  Dalija and Marisa and audio recording of interviews with Marisa about her vision of Dalija as a mother - and, on the other hand, on Dalija's solo- dance , which occurs independently of their family life. However, the performance is not a documentary. Stage setting means (partial) improvisation, in which Milan Markovic selects raw materials of interviews, setting it as a challenge to Dalija's dance material. This delegation takes mother / author ultimate control over  events on the scene and  Marisa's interpretation of the statement, leaving the possibility of playing with recordings, "desirable and undesirable "statements and sudden compounds of Dalija's dance and Marisa's comments.

contemporary dance performance for children 1- 6

Concept and choreography: Dalija Acin Thelander

Dramaturgy: Maja Pelevic

Stage and costume design: Zorana Petrov

Music: Vladimir Pejkovic

Performed by: Damjan Kecojevic, Milica Pisic, Dalija Acin Thelander

Produced by: Little Theatre Dusko Radovic, Belgrade, Serbia \

The Book of wandering is unique dance performance created in a special visual environment aiming to invite youngest audience to experience a different form of theatre as well as dance theatre.

Audience shares the same space with the performers. Without the usual border between the stage and auditorium, audience is invited to participate in the adventure, dance together with the performers as well as play the games with them. Combining the dance and the text as a means of communication performance tells the story about the friends going on a quest...