Emilie Gregersen

Caresses is a choreographic work by choreographer and artist, Emilie Gregersen, developed in close collaboration with dancer Paolo De Venecia Gile, sound artist Karis Zidore, visual artist Elin Stampe, and dramaturge and choreographic consultant Naya Moll.

In a dripping latex installation unfolds a textural and poetic performance that moves through companionships, politics of touch, tactility, and emotions. The erotic, the uncanny, the intimate and the unreal are interweaved, questioned, and embraced.

The piece is the second part of a trilogy that studies the perception of touch from a phenomenological and choreographic perspective. The trilogy explores and contorts touch as an act, a sensation, and as a fundamental imperative of existence. The first part of the trilogy is the solo Touch (2020), that navigates through touch and its sensuous distortions in a tech-sensory universe.

Caresses premiered the 7th of October 2021 at Copenhagen Contemporary (CC) presented by Dansehallerne.
The piece is co-produced with Dansehallerne and The Nordic Residency Exchange Programme.

Interview: Emilie Gregersen about the work Caresses
Article: about Caresses by Jeffrey S. Stratton
Interview: Emilie Gregersen in MAYONÈZ MAG
Review: Vibeke Wern, Danstidningen

Emilie Gregersen recently received Edith Allers Mindelegat for the creation of the pieces Touch and Caresses.

Credits
Concept, choreography and performance: Emilie Gregersen
Performance and choreography: Paolo De Venecia Gile
Composition & sound design: Karis Zidore
Dramaturge & choreographic consultant: Naya Moll
Installation & scenography: Elin Stampe
Costumes: Elin Stampe & Emilie Gregersen
Light design: Madeleine Lind Hoppe
Text work: Naya Moll & Emilie Gregersen
Guitar: Marie Louise Buch
Bass: Made Ege
Producer: Sebastian Nervil
Co-production: Dansehallerne & The Nordic Residency Exchange Programme
Residencies: Inter Arts Center & Reykjavik Dance Festival
Administration: Projektcenteret, Dansehallerne
Photos: Ville Vidoe
Video documentation and trailer: Cruz Proxy

Supported by: Statens Kunstfond, William Demant Fonden, Koda Dramatik,
Skuespillerforbundets Produktionsstøtteudvalg & Københavns Scenekunstudvalg

Thanks to Cruz Proxy, Sigrid Stigsdatter, Dansverkstæðið & Dance Cooperative.

The text above is a collage poem weaved with words from books that have been close companions to the process of Caresses. The interweaving consists of sentences from Touch by Laura U Marks, Politics of Touch by Erin Manning and the essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde.