What did I just do?//INTERNATIONAL

Dancer and performer Maud Karlsson Lima de Faria recovers her six decades of life in a detailed stream of memories, from her grandparents owning a pom poms factory in the 60s in Sweden until the very date of each performance. Images pour out at high speed. A relentless and unsentimental succession of memories cascades one after another. This is the material for a research which renders palpable how unique and precious each human memory is and, simultaneously, how insignificant on the larger cosmic picture. A constant play of zooming in and out in from the personal to the universal.

The project is built on two dramaturgical lines: the linear narrative structure of Maud’s memories of a lifetime and the interplay of body and visual elements. Every time we retrieve a memory the cells in our brain are recreating and altering it for future use. It is as much an act of gathering as it of planting and in each process different pieces of it are recombined, or lost, hence creating small variations of our own identity. This principle has inspired the physical action of the piece In parallel with the narrative, Maud interacts with fragments of furniture in the space. Linear and modular wood pieces, a sort of deconstructed furniture DNA that she reconfigures in multiple ways, creating images that sometimes align with the narrative in recognisable images of past lives, only to disappear shortly after. A constant play of alignment and disalignment of body, voice and visual elements. The piece interrogates to what extent our memories are our identity. Is there such a thing as the present moment? How much of us remains when our memories are altered or deteriorated? The sentences you just read are already part of your past. Your immediate past, which still lingers in the air as if it were present. But your past nonetheless...

‍

LISTEN TO CONNECTED PODCAST

• BODIES, IDENTITIES AND HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS - Bodies, identities and historical consciousness play a huge role in the way we show up in the present. Starring: Mirko Guido (All that remains), Fabio Liberti (MUOVI/What did I just do?) and Stine Nilsen (CODA - Oslo International Dance Festival).

‍

CONTEXT

Despite what it initially may seem, What did I just do? is in no way an autobiographical work. The 6 decades of memories of Maud Karlsson are delivered in a continuous flow, where speed and emotional neutrality have been a deliberate artistic choice to avoid any sentimentality or emphasis on the personal. They become material to render in images and sound the relentless passing of time for all living beings. Through the performer’s real-life events, it touches on many topics relevant to people of all ages. One of the most relevant themes concerns women, consent and patriarchy. Thanks to the generosity of the performer allowing the use of very intimate memories, several discussions have already occurred with female audience members about exposure to male domination and the similarity of our times.

‍

THE COMPANY

Italian choreographer Fabio Liberti graduated from Codarts Rotterdam Dance Academy in 2004. Since then he has been engaged full time in several dance dance companies in both Holland (Conny Janssen Danst), Germany (Stadttheater Hildesheim), Switzerland (Stadttheater Saint Gallen), Italy (AIEP) and Denmark (Danish Dance Theatre). He has worked as a dancer and simultaneously as a choreographer, creating several award-winning pieces. In 2020 he founded his independent company MUOVI based in Denmark to produce his own work.

‍

INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY

The touring network for contemporary choreographic and cross-disciplinary work in Denmark is very limited so we are searching for new horizons. Both Maud and Fabio have worked internationally for decades so it is simply part of their artistic DNA. The piece is grounded in choreography but the abundance of text material makes it belong in platforms dedicated to contemporary theater or hybrid formats, as well. Owing to the speed of the text, subtitles are not a possibility, so a certain English proficiency by the audience is necessary. We welcome proposals from all countries, but in Europe we would see it particularly accessible in the Nordic and Baltic region, UK, Belgium or Netherlands. Even more so when our wish would be to continue doing post-performance encounters with audiences to have a dialogue about some of the topics it interrogates: the fragility of memory, mature female representation, stigmatization of menopause or sexual abuse. Venues in NYC and USA in general would be extremely relevant, as a large part of the memory material unfolds over decades in NYC. With a sufficient tour in Sweden we would consider a Swedish version of the text as it is Maud's mother tongue.

‍

CONTACT PERSON

CARLOS CALVO +45 25 68 71 56 carlos@fabio-liberti.com

‍

TRIGGER WARNINGS

Nudity and stories of sexual violence

‍

TARGET AUDIENCE GROUP

14+

‍

FORMAT AND SUSTAINABILITY

What did I just do? can be re-staged and travel with minimal requirements. The set is composed of paper and wood pieces that fit into a large hockey equipment bag. Other than that only a white marley, a few standard lighting fixtures and a video projector are necessary. So no freight is required, either to perform during CPH Stage or anywhere else in the future. For CPH Stage it only requires travel of Maud Karlsson to CPH which will be done by train as it has been done in previous occasions. The piece was rehearsed at Bora Bora in Aarhus and presented twice at Dansekapellet and subsequently twice in Dansstationen in Malmö using only train and bus for transport, no private cars.

‍

SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

MUOVI is a very small company. It's very existence could not be sustained without fostering respect, generosity and attention to boundaries amongst everyone in the small teams we put together for our work. This last production in particular was born through an intimate process of trust between choreographer Fabio Liberti and performer Maud Karlsson Lima de Faria. Both were keen on exploring the mechanisms of memory. Maud's life details constitute the starting point of the piece. And it became clear in the process the wish to do a piece with that material and only herself onstage, but not ABOUT her. The memories of a life-time are a huge territory which open up cascades of emotions and associations, both the sender and the receiver(s). This entailed a carefully process of curation by Fabio and Maud of what felt right and safe to revisit when in rehearsals. And at a later stage in collaboration with dramaturge Sara Živkovič Kranjc to find the universal in the personal and to find formulas that allowed detachment from specific emotions to make space for the audience's own universe in a way that rawness felt safe for everyone in the room.

‍

WHY THIS PIECE WAS SELECTED FOR CPH STAGE

The elderly dancer on stage is sculpting in time and space as we slowly get to know in glimpses about 60 decades of lived life. This performance places itself in a row of works, that bring different generations on stage. Hereby making us all remember that the body’s experience and memory contain great wisdom as well as shape the body and the movements we make as human beings. WHAT DID I JUST DO? is part of a movement where no body is left unseen while visualizing how a lived life unfolds in the past and the presence as a memory of the body.

‍