CHOREOGRAPHER
Jefta van Dinther (SE/NL) is a choreographer and dancer working in Amsterdam, Stockholm and Berlin. He grew up in Sweden, after which he moved to the Netherlands and graduated from the Amsterdam School of the Arts (MTD) in 2003. Van Dinther creates performances, both alone and in collaboration with other artists. His own works include The Blanket Dance (2011), which was made in collaboration with Frédéric Gies and DD Dorvillier. The previous performance Kneeding – a choreography for three men – premiered in Amsterdam in 2010. In 2009 he choreographed the quintet The Way Things Go, a slowly moving sculpture of cause and effect. Together with Mette Ingvartsen he created the performance IT’S IN THE AIR (2008). His latest work GRIND was created together with lighting designer Minna Tiikkainen and sound designer David Kiers, and premiered at WELD in Stockholm in December 2011.
Apart from dancing in his own performances, van Dinther also performs in the works of others. He is currently working and touring with performances by Mette Ingvartsen, Xavier Le Roy and Ivana Müller. He has been engaged as a performer with various other choreographers including Frédéric Gies, Keren Levi, Leine/Roebana, Pere Faura, Carolien Hermans, Martin Butler and Inari Salmivaara. He teaches choreography, sharing his working methods and practices. During 2008/2009 he was one of the participants in the project 6 Months 1 Location (6M1L), an experiment in education, production and research at Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier. Together with the other participants from 6M1L, he co-curated the In-Presentable Festival 2009 in Madrid and he also organizes the Living Room Festival. In October 2011, Cullberg presented The Way Things Go at Kulturhuset in Stockholm. In 2013, van Dinther will create a new piece; Plateau Effect, specifically for Cullberg.
www.jeftavandinther.com
COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER
David Kiers (NL) graduated from the Sonology degree program at the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, the Netherlands. In the recent years his main focus as an image and sound artist has been on the collaboration with Gideon Kiers and Lucas van der Velden under the Telcosystems moniker. Their search for a personal language in the world of abstract computer generated image and sound has produced a string of performances, installations and short films, which have been shown and nominated for awards all over the world. Sonar/Barcelona, de Appel/Amsterdam, International Short Film Festival/Oberhausen, Boijmans van Beuningen/Rotterdam, ArsElectronica/Linz, Cyberarts Festival/Boston, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Transmediale/Berlin and Wood Street Galleries/Pittsburgh USA, to metion a few. In 2009 Telcosystems received the Gus Van Sant award for best experimental film for their short film Loudthings. Besides this David Kiers has composed music for various theatre and video productions, among them like Jefta van Dinther’s last three productions Kneeding, GRIND and THIS IS CONCRETE.
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Award-winning lighting designer Minna Tiikkainen (born 1969 in Helsinki) began experimenting with light while studying fine arts. Her fascination with its immaterial quality led her to enroll at Theater Academy of Finland to study Lighting Design, where she received her MA in 2002. She then moved to Amsterdam, forging an international career in performing arts. Her work is described as strong in its minimal approach, especially appreciated for its significance for totality of the performance. She has worked with, i.a. Nicole Beutler, Jefta van Dinther, Mette Ingvartsen, Keren Levi, and Kate McIntosh.
SET DESIGNERS
SIMKA is the project name for the visual artists Simon Häggblom’s and Karin Lind’s shared artistic activities. Through SIMKA they combine their knowledge and skill from visual art, set design and landscape architecture.
The core of their work is the investigation and formation of different spaces and sites for human interaction. Informed by the tensions between urbanity and nature, as well as the fictional and the habitual world. The pieces are more or less permanent, located in the gaps, the solitary or disintegrated spaces of the public or private sphere.
SIMKA was formed 12 years ago and has produced a number of large public commissions, in the last years; O-wall, Henriksdalshöjden’s pre school (Nacka Kultur), Wonderland, at the penitentiary institution Hall in Södertälje (Statens Konstråd), The song of the forest, Igelstaverket, Södertälje (Söderenergi Kraftvärme AB), Les Trois Mages, outside Notre dame in Reims for the festival Reims Scénes d’Europe, France. Set design & costumes for Tusen år hos Gud –Choreography Margaretha Åsberg at The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm.
Their current work includes Leonora Carrington, set design and art installation for theater Unga Klara, project for Orgeval / Foyer Remois & La Friché Artistique and Reims Scénés d’Europe in Reims, France, exhibitions at Körsbärsgården konsthall, 2 – 21 juli, 2013, Gotland. Luleå Konsthall och Baltic Sea, for European Capital of Culture in Umeå in cooperation with Norrlandsoperan, Sweden, at Gallery Noass in Riga, Latvia and Pori Art Museum in Pori, Finland, 2014.
Karin Lind has also a career as set designer for theater and dance with over 100 productions the past 20 years.
CREDITS
Plateau Effect (2013)
Choreography Jefta van Dinther
Sound design David Kiers
Set design SIMKA
Lighting design Minna Tiikkainen
Rehearsal director and Assistant to the choreographer: Thomas Zamolo
Artistic advisors: Frédéric Gies, Kristine Slettevold and Robert Steijn
With nine dancers in Cullberg.
Duration approximately 60 minutes, no intermission.
World premiere in the summer of 2013.