DANCE ALL YEAR LONG was a project from LOCATION X – introducing 24 different projects and professional contemporary dance artists to Odense. From July 2018 until July 2019 we make Odense dance. ​

The curious makers and dancers Cecilie Kjær (DK), Malika Berney (Australia) and Fleur Roks (The Netherlands) together form the collective C’est ma Fleur.

The three artists are keen explorers of the moving body. In their new project in DANCE ALL YEAR LONG, they explored the body both in terms of its capacity: individual and common strengths and weaknesses and in terms of its relation: one body with another/others and with a body of different material; in this case, a metallic structure.

Working with the ‘body’ in different structures, they were not only interested in their relation and interaction, but also in their construction and deconstruction. How can you similarly as building an aluminium structure ‘build’ with bodies?
Composition, layering, stacking, stripping…etc… become interesting terrain. Furthermore, they found beauty in the CONTRAST of these bodies. A contrast that arises concepts such as: natural vs. unnatural, man vs. man made, soft flesh vs. hard metal, which generate powerful images. With this said, they are also intrigued by their similarities: bones of the body along the bones of the structure.

As background for this project: the initial research was carried out on three male bodies for practical reasons.

In their residency, it was being embodied and evolved by women. Despite the fact that gender is not part of their concept per se, morphology is an undeniable contributing factor to the outcome of the piece, when it comes to the overall physicality and certain images and/or references. Due to this, both ACCEPTANCE and TRANSPARENCY become crucial parts of their work.

Acceptance of both the strengths and limitations of this body. Acceptance of the potential images and references it makes. Where does this lead?

“All in all, we are aware of who we are and the bodies that we have. We aim to use this knowledge as an advantage to both create material and present it in this specific context in a transparent way for our audience.”