Four emerging artistic practices that span from drag to voguing to whacking to queer death studies are invited into our new joint residency format IN PRACTICE.
Dette arrangement er et lukket arrangement
The residency focuses on sharing methods and giving introduction workshops to artistic feedback, light design, and creative writing. Invited to work both alone and together, the residency aims to cross-pollinate and nourish the individual practices and further establish them in the Danish performing arts scene.
For this first IN PRACTICE residency, HAUT invited practices that together touch upon crucial questions regarding community, bodily autonomy, self expression and care.
The duo Hjalte Ebsen Andersen and Ida Irma are invited to further continue their inquiry of the connections between psychomotoric therapy and the practices of whacking. Through their research, they examine body awareness in a performance-oriented space, and by incorporating body-therapeutic principles into their whacking practice, they work to create space and freedom for forms of expression that, at times, are suppressed.
Zutana Hadaddeen, who has danced together with Hjalte and Ida for several years, is invited to dive deeper into the ballroom scene and voguing practices, a scene and practice that form her main community and form of artistic expression.
Carl-Johan Paulsen is invited to delve further into his drag practice, focusing on research into how drag can overlap with visual arts pedagogy, for which he will utilize his drag community and invite them to workshop at HAUT with him.
Rikke Bogetoft, is invited to continue their investigation of queer necropolitics and to explore the relationship between dehumanisation and the non-human through.
Bios:
Hjalte Ebsen is a dancer, educator, and community organizer whose practice is rooted in Whacking, a dance form he has been dedicated to since beginning his dance education in Copenhagen in 2013. His ongoing research into the style has taken him across Europe and the United States, including extended periods in New York, where he worked closely with Princess Lockeroo and trained with pioneers of the form. These experiences continue to inform his artistic practice, teaching, and understanding of Whacking’s cultural lineage.
Alongside his work in Whacking, Hjalte has been an important contributor to the development of the Danish Ballroom scene, helping to create spaces where queer communities can gather, perform, and cultivate forms of embodied self-expression and collective care.
His artistic interests extend beyond dance into the field of embodied cognition, exploring how movement shapes perception, thought, and learning. Grounded in the belief that body and mind are inseparable, his practice investigates the ways knowledge is produced, transmitted, and transformed through physical experience.
Through performance, pedagogy, and community-building, Hjalte’s work centers movement as both an artistic language and a tool for connection, empowerment, and cultural exchange.
Ida Irma Poulsen is a trained dancer educated in Copenhagen and Paris, where she was first introduced to the dance style Whacking. Since then, she has dedicated herself to deepening her knowledge and practice of the form, including traveling to Los Angeles, the birthplace of Whacking, to further immerse herself in its history, culture, and community.
For the past 10 years, Ida has worked professionally with Whacking as a performer, teacher, and facilitator. She has also been an active part of the Danish ballroom scene since its early beginnings, participating in balls both in Denmark and internationally, while contributing to the community through workshops, community sessions, and other initiatives.
In addition to her dance background, Ida is a certified Psychomotor Therapist. Her current practice bridges dance and a holistic body-oriented therapeutic approach, integrating movement, body awareness, and embodied learning. Drawing from both artistic and therapeutic perspectives, she creates spaces that support connection, self-expression, well-being, and personal development.
Zutana Hadaddeen is a Copenhagen-based multidisciplinary artist, performer, curator, and activist whose practice spans performance, nightlife, education, and visual art. Born in Amman, Jordan, and raised in Stavanger, Norway, she has established herself as a distinctive voice within Scandinavian queer culture, where her work connects artistic practice with community-building, representation, and social change.
Zutana’s artistic work moves fluidly between stage performance, club culture, and institutional contexts. Her performances are marked by an intense physical presence in which movement, storytelling, and emotional force merge. She has performed at festivals, cultural institutions, and Pride events across Europe, consistently working to create spaces for queer visibility, resistance, and collective empowerment.
As a curator and community builder, Zutana is dedicated to developing platforms where art, nightlife, and activism intersect. She is the founder and host of CLUB SH1FT3RS in Copenhagen, a club concept created in collaboration with Mana Club, centering queer performance, artistic experimentation, and community-driven nightlife practices. She has also curated and facilitated a range of ballroom and community-oriented events, including Taste the Watermelon Kiki Ball and Belts on Belts Kiki Ball.
Alongside her artistic practice, Zutana works as an educator and facilitator, focusing on gender expression, movement, empowerment, and artistic practice. Through workshops, lectures, and cultural programs, she collaborates with institutions, festivals, and grassroots organizations to create inclusive spaces for learning, reflection, and community.
Whether on stage, in the club space, through teaching, or in curatorial projects, Zutana Hadaddeen creates transformative experiences where art, activism, and queer imagination meet, opening new possibilities for belonging, visibility, and change.
Rikke Bogetoft is a Danish artist and researcher. Bogetoft is a recent graduate of the Master of Fine Art program at HDK-Valand in Göteborg, and previously attended the Art & Technology program at Aalborg University. They work across Scandinavia with critical and socially engaged investigations of the dimensions of power which affect queer and non-human bodies.
Through queer, performative and participatory methods Bogetoft explores necropolitics, dehumanisation and the non-human. Their research and artistic practice are situated within the context of queer death studies, a field of research dedicated to challenging normative approaches to death and traditional regimes of truth made evident by queer death. One of many necropolitical strategies which influence queer death is dehumanisation, a process rooted in western paradigms of race, gender, and the human / non-human dichotomy. By critically examining these paradigms, Bogetoft asks whether our capacity for humanness and non-humanness is innate - or reproduced through anthropocentric and cisnormative narratives.
Carl-Johan Paulsen / Leo Patra is a Danish drag artist, performer, textile practitioner, and community organizer whose work unfolds at the intersection of queer liberation, mythology, pedagogy, and collective world-building. Shaped by Amsterdam’s international drag scene, particularly The House of Hopelezz, as well as studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the School for New Dance Development (SNDO), they have developed a multidisciplinary practice that merges drag performance with textile craft, visual art, and social engagement.
After returning to Denmark, Paulsen initiated the Copenhagen-based drag collective The House of Tricksters, driven by a desire to gradually reshape and expand local nightlife cultures through community-oriented drag practices. Their work moves fluidly between durational performances, club productions, handwoven garments, sound experiments, and participatory formats, often combining the slow processes of weaving, spinning, and dyeing with the transformative potential of drag.
Inspired by trickster figures such as Loki, Ophiuchus, Lilith, and Judas, Paulsen’s practice explores transformation, disruption, and alternative ways of relating to one another. Through performance, craft, and collective processes, they create spaces where queer imaginaries, embodied knowledge, and acts of resistance can emerge.
IN PRACTICE is a NEWRESIDENCYFORMAT meant for both young and self-taught practice-based artists to to share their artistic practices, dreams and methods, while receiving kind, affirming and queer feedback to GROW as ARTISTS.
The residency is co-curated by Qwin Werle from lím collective together with HAUT’s artistic leader Alex Blum on the basis of HAUT’s application round in fall 2025.
