b12

asteroids

b12 participants work out and research ideas with a choreographer in order to present them in a performance series setting. the workshop description is the starting point for the piece to be developed. the draft will then be presented to the public at dock 11. b12ers can get tickets at a reduced ticket price (10 euro)!

erna ómarsdóttir // Lucija romanova // Maxine Doyle

performance projects

dates (dock 11 theater)

24/04/2026 // 19:30

25/04/2026 // 19:30

26/04/2026 // 19:30

erna ómarsdóttir

erna ómarsdóttir is an icelandic dancer and choreographer. she graduated from p.a.r.t.s. in brussels in 1998. since then, she has collaborated extensively with choreographers, composers and visual artists such as damien jalet, sidi larbi cherkaoui, björk, jóhann jóhannsson, anna thorvaldsdóttir, sigur rós, gabríela friðriksdóttir, matthew barney, jonas åkerlund and ben frost. erna has created numerous works for leading international dance and theatre institutions, including ballet basel, nagelhus schia productions in oslo, theater am gärtnerplatz in munich, theater freiburg, chunky move in melbourne and iceland dance company. from 2015 to 2025, she served as artistic director of the iceland dance company. her work has been widely acclaimed and awarded. she is a multiple recipient of gríman, the icelandic performing arts award, and in 2019 received a faust award nomination for romeo & juliet, co-created with halla ólafsdóttir. she is also the winner of the norwegian subject prize 2020 for duels, stage production of the year, co-created with damien jalet. for over 25 years, erna has been creating her works, many through the shalala company with her partner valdimar jóhannsson. her artistic practice moves fluidly between dance, performance and staged excess, often incorporating voice, singing, breathing, screaming, cleaning and repetition as choreographic forces, alongside physical commitment combined with elements from visual artistic work in set and costume.

a borderline electromagnetic gossip ritual

in this performance project, we will create some sort of a borderline musical where we treat the voice as a direct extension of the dancing body. we move beyond the voice as only a musical or narrative tool, but also utilise it as a raw, textural and visceral instrument to express both abstract and concrete emotions. by fusing extreme physical movements with the voice, we allow the body to physically distort or affect the sound, and the sound to dictate the movement. we will utilise both verbal and non-verbal vocalisations to build poetic, dancing soundscapes that fluctuate between melodic harmony and abstract noise. metamorphosis through objects and fabrics will serve as an element where we extend the body’s boundaries, using fabrics and found objects as tools for simple transformation. by manipulating a diverse array of materials—ranging from everyday items like towels, curtains and skipping ropes to weird objects and accidental finds from the nearby environment. we will work with material from older work of erna, such as ibm 1401-a users manual and the talking tree, and a recent one, the orphic circles and other gossip, as starting points. our research could thus become some sort of a techno-mythological meditation on memory, obsolescence and endurance, or a borderline musical that uses electromagnetic gossip and the body as both an ancient machine and a myth, flirting with ghosts from the past and present in a ritual of common things made holy.

Lucija romanova

former performer with jasmin vardimon | artistic director of schach matt series / lucija romanova

lucija romanova was born in zagreb, croatia. she graduated from the academy for theatre and dance in amsterdam. during her studies, she collaborated with choreographers such as liat tamara waysbort, julio cesar iglesias ungo, milan tomasik, roser lopez espinosa and keren levi. after amsterdam, she went to london, where she worked with jasmin vardimon company, tribe company, lila dance company, the waldorf project, kennedy muntanga dance theatre and others. her first author's solo, spontaneously vulnerable experience, was created in croatia during 2020 and 2021. in 2021 she collaborated with choreographers such as adrienne hod, reut shemesh, paul blackman and christine gouzelis (juxsta), and director jan lauwers (need company). she worked as a dancer and rehearsal director at theater oberhausen for the production bad mothers by reut shemesh. in 2022 she collaborated with british composer alex paton in a sonically powerful performance, broken hip and the unbreakable spirit. in 2023 her new creation, zhivila, has undergone research and development and is waiting to be premiered. she has been a recurring teacher at the renowned dance festivals deltebre dansa and b12. romanova taught as a guest lecturer at performact, belgrade institute for artistic dance, ljubljana dance academy, periskop festival, zagreb dance center, ozora festival and, in london, in the dance centre's tripspace, house of mass and rambert dance.

FAN FRICTION

fan friction is an exploration of pop-cultural canon and iconic material through the lens of fan-fiction. we will work with fragments from existing stories, music, quotes and images, using them as prompts rather than scripts. canon, the official story, and canon divergences, what could have happened differently, are just starting points, opening up space for improvisation, transformation and reinterpretation. the creation process plays with fan-fiction tropes, alternate timelines, au worlds, headcanons, character swaps, crossover mashups, exaggerated emotions and unexpected relationships, and asks how the body can take these ideas, push them, distort them and let them emerge physically. movement will involve improvisation, tasks, repetition, intensification and moments of friction, collapse and overflow. nothing is fixed. references may appear, change or vanish. the piece is shaped by our impulses, responses and the energy in the room. fan friction is about experimenting, exploring and letting inherited material transform through the body.

Maxine Doyle

Associate artist Punchdrunk

maxine is an independent choreographer and director. since 2002, she has been director and choreographer for punchdrunk, with whom she co-directed the multi-award-winning sleep no more (london, boston, new york, shanghai, seoul), the drowned man, the house where winter lives, the firebird ball, faust, masque of the red death, tunnel 228, the duchess of malfi (an operatic collaboration with english national opera and thorsten rasch), and the yellow wallpaper. most recently, punchdrunk opened the epic the burnt city (2022–present) in london. work for film and television includes mari (dir: georgia paris), the third day – autumn (punchdrunk), brave new world (dir: owen harris), and 20:20 vision (dir: jake polonsnky). maxine has created work for ndt2, gothenburg dance company, in collaboration with es devlin, the balletboyz (uk), dart dance company, the martha graham company (usa), verve (uk), and johannes wieland company (germany). in 2019, she created the award-winning sunset (australian dance award) for strut dance and the perth festival. maxine is a regular principal artist at springboard dance and b12 festival. in 2023, maxine continued her collaboration with es devlin with the critically acclaimed dance installation work – salamander. future projects include new work i am not myself for eisenhower dance company (usa), in collaboration with composer rachael dease, the ministry (nscd), and mayday for bodhi project (austria).

what a state

State of being State of mind state of matter state of the nation united state (s) in a state what a state – physical dance theatre creation through an exploration of state and its human, political, and animal associations. this work will be made in collaboration and created through improvisation and tasks.

performers

maxine doyle // what a state

performers// nn

erna ómarsdóttir //

a borderline electromagnetic gossip ritual

performers: nn

lucija romanova // fan friction

performers: nn