Ingri Fiksdal, Fredrik Floen, Mariama Fatou Kalley Slåttøy - The Syncopators
An unexpected dance intervention in the landscape of the city. A group of performers in search of a common rhythm, looking for ways to fit their bodies and the stories they carry into this landscape. An ecstatic celebration of public space – a space for performers and a space for audiences.
The Syncopators is a performance that takes place in public space. It builds on the solo Fictions of the Flesh (2021) by the same makers. Featuring five performers, the choreography draws from jazz dance techniques and combines them with speculative future fiction from literature and film to inspire new and superhuman corporealities.
The title is derived from the word syncope, a deviation from an expected rhythmic pattern in music or dance, often placing dynamic accents on weaker beats or omitting stronger beats. Syncopation is a feature of jazz dance as a genre, and the performance itself may disrupt the regular flow or habits in a particular public space. Moreover, the title is an allusion to typical science fiction movie titles that have inscribed themselves in our cultural memory.
The Syncopators questions the conceptual boundaries of dance as art, which are closely linked with colonial history, and intends to contribute to their expansion.