The Dying Swan Song
How can light act as a grieving body — sculpting absence, tenderness, and transformation?
14.9.25
14.9.25
14:00 - 16:00
Black Box, Thoravej 29, Copenhagen NW
19:30 Surbending_Black box
Participation in the event is FREE, but please reserve a ticket as space is limited. You can book your ticket here:
The artistic research
This research is initiated by Sanna Blennow, who, together with light designer Ulrich Ruchlinski and dancers Alice Martucci and Karin Bergman, will transform the black box into a laboratory for LIGHT and investigate how light might carry loss, hold space for the unspoken, and allow memory to linger not through story, but through atmosphere, color, shadow, and presence
They will explore how light can be used not to illuminate dance, but to become the dance. Light as an emotional and spatial dramaturg — capable of expressing grief, transformation, and absence.
In their work they will approach light as a co-performer; one that breathes, fades, exposes, dominates, and fractures. How can shifting tones, intensities, and placements evoke emotional architecture — from solitude to communal softness?
the artists
In addition to experimenting with light as an active partner in the choreographic process, the artists in this residency are testing their new collaboration. This is the first time they have had the opportunity to work together as a group, and they are curious to see what energy, dynamics, and challenges they encounter during the residency, and whether it will be a catalyst for discoveries that drive the process forward, or draining and painful for their creativity.
Sanna Blennow first collaborated with Ulrich Ruchlinski, an artist from Malmö, on her previous solo project, UNTIL DEATH DO US PART (2025). They had a fruitful exchange and exploration of the interplay between sound, light, and movement, which forms the foundation for this study and Blennow's upcoming project “The Dying Swan Song.”
Alice Martucci and Karin Bergman are both dancers/choreographers from Copenhagen whose practice Blennow admires, and she has long wished to collaborate with them. Now feels like the right moment to trust that intuition and see whether they are a working match — something that can only truly be discovered through shared experience. Chemistry within a working group is essential, but not something you can predict. You need to dive in and try it out, which this residency makes space for.
Credits:
Concept, choreography, project management: Sanna Blennow
Lights, sound: Ulrich Ruchlinski
Dance: Alice Martucci, Karin Bergman
Photo: Simone Gisela Weber
Sanna Blennow
Sanna Blennow (b. 1988, SE) is a choreographer, performer, and educator, based in Copenhagen, always curious to challenge formats and crossbreed artistic processes. Blennow’s practice investigates time, memory and the in-between, positioning her practice in the grey zone between the black box and the white cube, set choreography & improvisation, a sanctuary & a rupture. In these liminal spaces, the body enters an undefined zone, where anything can happen for a set time, where the monsters come out, and intuition guides.
Alice Martucci
Alice Martucci was born in Florence (IT) and moved to Copenhagen (DK) in 1998 to study dance, where she is still based today. Martucci holds a MFA in Choreography (2024) and a BA in Dance (2002) from the Danish National School of Performing Arts, as well as a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies (2018) from the University of Copenhagen. As a dancer, she has worked extensively across the contemporary dance and visual arts scenes in Denmark and Europe, collaborating with artists such as Sara Hamming, Alice Chauchat, Nønne Svalholm, and Éva Mag.
about the format
IN PROCESS is HAUTs 1-2 week long residency format that makes space for physical brainstorms supporting the investigation and the development of new ideas for the stage.
This group of artists has been invited into residency through the open call IN PROCESS – Creating with light, curated by HAUT's former artistic leader Betina Rex and light designer Sonja Lea as co-curator.