“Every festival should programme The Jury as its opening show.”

“…it is the kind of provocation that gets audiences talking. It’s about what we want from art, the roles of spectator and performer and the power of the critical voice. It is also funny, clever and consummately executed.”

- The Guardian

Who knows better than a child what a performance for children should be like?

Dancers begin to perform to classical music when children’s voices suddenly ring out: “What are they doing? I don’t understand anything! This is boring!” The children decide that since this is supposed to be a performance for kids, they should be the ones deciding what it’s about. The results are hilarious, beautiful and captivating as the dancers follow the children’s directions to the letter.

Prior to the first round of China tour, local young audiences were excitedly engaged with their ideas of what kind of dance they’d like to see. The most mentioned key words like “robot”, “tickle”, “Newton pendulum”, “Everything grows” were improvised by the dancers to hot reaction.

The grown-ups were amused and touched a lot to witness what would happen when children’s creativity were allowed to rule. It is when our kids are fully trusted and listened up that they can explore their potentials within and make themselves grow and thrive.

Introduction to the artists

Anneliese Charek
Anneliese Charek is a choreographer, performer and arts facilitator from Los Angeles. She trained in Classical Ballet at the Performing Arts Center Los Angeles’s pre-professional program before studying Modern Dance and Choreography at California Institute of the Arts. She was in the Li Chiao Ping Dance company and graduated from Shanghai Theater Academy with a Masters and a full scholarship. She is the co founder and producer of independent art space Basement 6 collective and the performance series IN THE FLESH.

By Leon

Her choreography has been presented as The Sharon Disney Lund Theater (Los Angeles), Shanghai International Dance Center Theater, Chronus Art Center, Spazio Diamenti (Rome, Italy), Himalaya Art Museum, Hangzhou International Dance Festival, Power Station of Art Theater, Pudong New Theater, 1933 Micro Theater, Minsheng Art Museum, MOCA Shanghai and more. She has performed extensively throughout China and the USA as a performer for other artists and groups.

https://www.anneliesecharek.com/

Nazhada Gudenko
One of the twins dancers, actresses, choreographers from Russia and based in Shanghai since 2012.
Cooperate with choreographers from NDT, Shanghai Dance Theatre, Xie Xin Dance Theatre, Shi Jing Xin Dance Lab, SLATE Dance Company, Shanghai MOON Theatre and others.
Involved in dance and drama theatre performances, gallery installation, dance films, immersive drama projects, physical theater performance and theater festivals.

Choreography: Hege Haagenrud
Dancers: Anneliese Charek, Nazhada Gudenko
Dramaturgy: Mads Sjøgård Pettersen
Composer: Rebekka Karijord
Sound design: Erik Hedin
Video: Vibeke Heide and Hege Haagenrud
Set design: Hege Haagenrud
Photo: Siren Lauvdal/Hege Haagenrud