On My Tongue (2024)

On My Tongue is a new choreographic work by Emilie Gregersen, developed and performed with Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Paolo de Venecia Gile and Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen. As the final piece in Gregersen’s Touch Trilogy—following Caresses (2021) and touch (2020)—this performance continues an exploration of touch through a queer and phenomenological lens. Each work in the trilogy offers an aesthetic and poetic reflection on how touch shapes our engagement with the world and with one another. On My Tongue premiered at Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, in november 2024.

On My Tongue is a captivating dance performance following four characters as they navigate queer romance, friendship, and the complexities of consent, connection and intimacy. A force field of dance and touch, On My Tongue is both sensuous and erotic – a piece about desire, communication, and trust. It delves into the pleasurable yet eerily strange terrain of human connection, where physical and emotional boundaries blur. Through movement, song, and speech, it portrays the longing for closeness and the visceral urge to surrender—to give oneself over to another and trust completely.

At its core, the piece engages sensorial practices that navigate the fragile terrain of consent, companionship, and the politics of touch. Set within a heightened and uncanny universe of opposing forces—where desire confronts fear and melancholia meets euphoria—it questions intimacy, trust, and the role of the senses, unraveling the ways we relate to ourselves and each other in increasingly complex ways. With a sharp eye for paradox and a touch of humor, On My Tongue creates space for emotional loops and glitches in both music and movement, exposing the intricate ambivalences of touching and being touched.

Throughout the piece the four characters engage in a seductive and charged dance, continuously negotiating their relationships with each other’s bodies. As the performance unfolds the dance and music pull them—and the audience—into a sensuous, poetic journey.

Interview with Emilie Gregersen about working with consent and acts of erotic living: https://bastard.blog/touch-working-with-consent-and-acts-of-erotic-living-emilie-gregersen/

Review: https://tanzschreiber.de/en/touch-me-like-2/

Performance dates in 2025:
March 8 & 9: 3e Våningen, Gothenburg
March 27, 28 & 29: Heizhaus at Uferstudios, Berlin

Credits
Artistic direction and choreography: Emilie Gregersen
Developed and performed by: Paolo de Venecia Gile, Sigrid Stigsdatter Mathiassen, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso and Emilie Gregersen
Composition and sound design: Karis Zidore
Dramaturgy: Jette Büchsenschütz and Naya Moll
Light design: Vito Walter
Costume design: Erik Annerborn
Shoes: Mathilda Guve
Fabrics: Amandla Cherian
Seamstress: Hanna Westerling
Voice support: Flavia Huarachi
Intern in choreography and performance: Pauline Michel

Trailer and PR pictures: Ville Vidø
Pictures fro Uferstudios: Jelly Luise
Film documentation: Kathrine Skibsted
Producer: Carlos Calvo
Dansehallerne producer: Sebastian Nervil
Administration: Astrid Gravsholt, Dance Cooperative

Co-production: Dansehallerne, Copenhagen and ada Studio, Berlin
Residency: ada Studio Berlin and Holstebro Dance Company

Supported by: The Danish Arts Foundation, William Demant Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fonden, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Københavns Scenekunstudvalg and Vesterbro Lokaludvalg.

Thanks to Lydia Östberg Diakité, Escarleth Romo Pozo and Camilla Lind for feedback and support. Thanks to Kim Dall’Armi for support with film documentation. Also thanks to Dance Cooperative, Aaben Dans and Sydhavn Teater for supporting the project.