Maison de la Danse

is an independent platform for dance, organized and curated by Dance is Ancient. We are based in Malmö-SE, but currently mobile in the city!

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2025 fall program

Dear dance and
dance floor lovers,

It is with great excitement that we announce our Maison de la Danse – Fall 2025 programme!

This autumn, Maison de la Danse continues to expand, welcoming new collaborations and inviting both international and local artists to share their work. We deepen our commitment to Technosomatics and continue the conversation begun last spring: how do individual movements emerge from and call forth collective ones? How does the “I” both contain and call for a “WE”? We continue to assert the power of gestures and movements, not only as artistic expressions, but as reflections of the political landscapes in which they are born.

The season opens with a two-day programme at Skånes konstförening, where Manuel Pelmuş and Rachel Tess challenge dominant norms within dance and choreography by channeling personal and historical archives. Pelmuş’ performance lecture Borderlines, evokes the fluidity and unpredictability of borders: between nations, between identities, and between artistic disciplines. In Flip Side, Tess invites an ensemble of choreographers to create ten individual solos, in which her body becomes a capsule for the choir of voices that have shaped her life and work.

In October, Maison Ouverte # 8 explores the relationship between choreography and resistance. Manuel Pelmuş and Frédéric Gies’ new work – premiering at Steirischer Herbst in Graz – echoes Kurt Jooss’ anti-fascist piece The Green Table (1932) and the tradition of the “Danse Macabre”. The performance is paired with a lecture by dance scholar Josefin Wikström, in which she asks, from within our present moment of genocide and mass destruction: what is dance’s role or task in times of war today?

The fall programme closes by returning to the body as a site of queer memory and imagination. In Untitled (Figures), Lenio Kaklea draws from the queer icons who inhabit her corporeal archive: a homage to the artists, rebels, and pop stars – the cowgirls, sailors, disco dancers – who have reshaped the past, present and future.

And of course, with our cherished Monday evening Technosomatics sessions, we will continue to commit to the transformative power of collective and individual movements on the dance floor. All our activities are for free, as usual.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Frédéric Gies (Artistic Director) & Albin Hillervik (Curator & Project Developer)

FALL 2025

FALL 2025

WORKSHOPS

  • The workshops are always on Mondays, 19.00 – 21.15; and always at Teater Barbro at Ungdomens Hus, Malmö.

    Access: Norra Skolgatan 10 B, 211 52 Malmö. Once in the corridor, first door to the left.

    1/9, 22/9, 29/9, 6/10, 13/10, 13/10, 20/10, 27/10, 3/11, 10/11, 17,11, 24/11, 1/12, 8/12, 15/12

    Technosomatics is a unique dance practice that delves into the connection between club dancing to techno music and the body's chakras and endocrine glands. Developed and shared globally by Frédéric Gies since 2014, this practice offers a transformative experience. Each session will be dedicated to a specific focus and theme.

    All workshops are free of charge. No previous skill or experience required.

    All info HERE
    Book your spot HERE

PERFORMANCES

  • MAISON de la DANSE X SKÅNES KONSTFÖRENING

    Over the course of two days, choreographers Manuel Pelmuș and Rachel Tess delve into personal stories and explore the conditions of choreography. The art space at Skånes konstförening will be filled with gestures and language that renegotiate established relationships between choreographer and dancer, between audience and stage.

    Skånes Konstförening, Bragegatan 15, Malmö

    Sept. 5 | 19.00 - 21.00 · Borderlines – performance by Manuel Pelmus

    Sept. 6 | 16.00 - 20.00 · Flip Side – performance by Rachel Tess

    All info HERE
    Book your spot HERE

  • FRÉDÉRIC GIES, MANUEL PELMUS & JOSEFINE WIKSTRÖM

    Pairing a performance with a lecture, this programme addresses how dance and choreography can respond to times of crisis.

    Festsalen, Ungomens Hus, Norra Skolgatan 10 B, Malmö

    18.30 - 21.30

    All info HERE
    Book your spot HERE

  • UNTITLED (FIGURES) – LENIO KAKLEA

    Embracing everything that is queer in her through a catalogue of danced figures (the cowgirl, leather culture, disco and the figure of the sailor), Lenio Kaklea dives into her corporeal archive. She pays homage to the capacity of queer cultures to teach us to love the female body and shows us how the body can be a vessel for imagining political positions.

    Festsalen, Ungomens Hus, Norra Skolgatan 10 B, Malmö

    18.00 - 21.30

    All info HERE
    Book your spot HERE

Upcoming Editions

SPRING 2026

More artists, international choreographers and access to behind the stage.

More info in 2026.

About
MAISON de la DANSE

MAISON de la DANSE is an independent platform for dance, organised and curated by Dance is Ancient in Malmö, SE. MAISON de la DANSE is at the moment mobile in the city. We welcome all audiences to a broad range of activities, including performances, workshops, works-in-progress, conversation and open house days.

LEARN MORE

Previous Editions

  • Under construction

  • Under construction

  • Under construction

  • Workshops & classes:

    Technosomatics
    Technosomatics live (collaboration with Kontra-musik/Ulf Eriksson)
    Open training with Dance is ancient’s team
    Open classes

    ——

    Performances:

    Many wild times (work-in-progress)
    An investigation of the overlaps between hetereocis-normative sociability and climate collapse.
    Presented in the frame of the programme evening #ONE (A danceaafter a dance after another dance - 2023).
    Dance & choreography: Andreas Haglund

    Chiron in Aries (excerpts and remixes)
    Selected duos and solos from the 7-piece cycle Chiron in Aries. Uniquely revisited with group dances danced as solos and/or solos as duos. After the Spring edition revisiting Brittanie Brown and Elisa Brewer’s solos, the fall edition makes us rediscover the cycle through the prism of dancers Declan Whitaker, Andreas Haglund and Frédéric Gies.
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dance: Frédéric Gies, Declan Whitaker, Andreas Haglund / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag

    Dance is ancient dances Dance is ancient’s dance #1, #2, #3 and #4
    6 different compilation of dances from our repertoire, presented in their original form or remixed in unexpected way.
    Presented it the frame of our Open House Maison Ouverte.
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dancers: Elise Brewer, Disa Krosness, Anna Pehrsson and Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel / Costumes: Grzegorz Matlag

    Excavation Series I
    In the first part of three, Excavation Series I, Choreographer and Dancer Anna Pehrsson, sources movement as mass - hot liquid rock lurking around the corner - a comet’s tail blasting through the skies - or a thin layer of evaporated water reaching the pores.
    Presented it the frame of our Open House Maison Ouverte.
    Choreography and Dance: Anna Pehrsson / Music: Alva Noto

    You might plant a rose bush under your bedroom window
    A walk through the landscape of bushes and railway tracks. A sequence of desires and needs unfolding alongside the trail. A dance of repetitive riffs that hits tenderly.
    Presented it the frame of our Open House Maison Ouverte.
    Dance & choreography: Elise Brewer

    #TWO (A dance after a dance after another dance – 2023)
    A special programme, navigating between Frédéric Gies’ classics and the forgotten corners of their work, in a poetic yet humorous journey. Choreography and dance: Frédéric Gies / Artist talk led by Skånes konstförening.

    Penumbral dances
    Performance for one spectator at a time, in an intimate setting.
    Choeography and dance: Frédéric Gies

    Tilt to turn
    In 2021, the possibilities of meeting and playing live were uncertain. Intonal Festival decided to do little guerrilla actions where they would crash various locations around Malmö, without notice or announcement, and just create what they loved. No crowd or anything, just them, the artists and their creativity. They invited Frédéric Gies and Rivet, which collaboration gave birth to Tilt to turn.
    Presented live for the first time, in the frame of the performance evening #THREE (A dance after a dance after another dance - 2023).
    Dance and choeography: Frédéric Gies / Music (live): Rivet

    Manifesto 1
    A new solo, which will be part of the upcoming piece “Manifestos: Chiron in Aries, Recital #5 and #6”, which will premiere in the fall 2025. It is part of a series of solos, which in their turn are part of the Chiron in Aries cycle, crafted specifically for the dancers who perform them. In this solo, Elise Brewer’s dance oscillate between fierceness and vulnerability, relentlessness and tenderness.
    Presented in the frame of the performance evening #THREE (A dance after a dance after another dance).
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dance: Elise Brewer / Music: Fiedel / Costume: Grzegorz Matlag

    ——

    Club:

    #THE PARTY
    A party to celebrate a year of dancing, with Rivet & Berghain resident Fiedel.

    ——

    Other:

    Open rehearsals
    Techno lunch
    Afterworks
    Artist talks

    ——

    Partners (curating) : MARC, Kontra-musik
    Partners (venues) : Ungdomens Hus, Skåne konstförening
    With the support of : Kulturrådet, Malmö stad, Region Skåne

  • First edition of Maison de la Danse as we know it today!

    Workshops: Technosomatics Regular, Technosomatics Intensive & Ribbon Dance workshop

    ——

    Performances:

    The Last
    A celebration of dancing, dancers, and personal dance histories. It will premiere in August 2023 in Knislinge, with 7 dancers, each presenting a solo. For La Maison de la Danse, Rachel Tess gives a world preview of this work and dances her own solo from the piece.
    Dance, concept and Choreography: Rachel Tess / Sound: Uli Ruchlinski

    Little did I know that I, ere or since, ever should speak mouthless
    Little did I know that I, ere or since, ever should speak mouthless (2011) examines the possibilities of dealing with politics in an artistic work.
    Choreography and Dance: Frédéric Gies / Music: Daniel Jenatsch

    Dance concert #1
    Compilation of different programs of bold, tender and virtuosic dances extracted from our recent performances for the stage: “Constellations and Alliances”, “Warriors” and “Terpsichore in Scorpio”.
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dance: Frédéric Gies, Andreas Haglund / Music: Fiedel

    Dance concert #2 Compilation of different programs of bold, tender and virtuosic dances extracted from our recent performances for the stage: “Constellations and Alliances” and “Barricades and Legacies”.
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dance: Brittanie Brown, Elise Brewer / Music: Fiedel

    Dance concert #3
    Compilation of different programs of bold, tender and virtuosic dances extracted from our recent performances for the stage: “Penumbral dances”, “Constellations and Alliances” and “Barricades and Legacies”.
    Choreography: Frédéric Gies / Dance: Brittanie Brown, Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel

    Unclouded Dances
    Performance/ritual for one spectator at a time, in an intimate setting. It addresses the spiritual dimension of dance and its relationship to healing.
    Choreography and Dance: Frédéric Gies / Music: Fiedel

    ——

    Other: Techno Breakafsts, Open Movement Research

    ——

    Partners (venues): Ungdomens Hus
    With the support of: Kulturrådet. Malmö stad, Region Skåne

  • First Malmö base edition in 2022 under the previous name “ Context”.

    Workshops: Technosomatics.

    Performances: Good girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere - Unclouded Dances - Walk + Talk - Ribbon Dance

    Dance: Frédéric Gies
    Music: Fiedel
    Partners (venues): Ungdomens Hus, Teaterhögskolan

    With the support of: Kulturrådet. Malmö stad, Region Skåne