”Things That Can Survive in Space” is a choreographic experiment for two audiences: a present audience and a hypothetical one.

In this, their first work, Anika Edström Kawaji and Robin Haghi choreograph with the intention of exposing themselves before our astronomical cosmos. Together they explore what the physical expression and communicative qualities of bodies become when reflected into the alienating emptiness of space.

In collaboration with composer Markus B. Almqvist and lighting designer/scenographer Elias Ortiz, Anika Edström Kawaji and Robin Haghi invite you into a temporarily roofless performance space. Things That Can Survive in Space is an experiment where dance and performance is sent to a yet undetermined address out in space.

The project originated from NASA’s ambitious and absurd Voyager mission (1977) and its attempt to create an intergalactic ’message in a bottle’. On board two space probes sent to study space beyond our solar system, NASA also placed two golden LPs. The discs contained a collection of greetings in different languages, music, nature sounds and photographs and served as an attempt to encapsulate various expressions of our earthly existence, in case someone should come into contact with the probes on their journey into and across space.

Bio

Anika Edström Kawaji & Robin Haghi
Anika Edström Kawaji and Robin Haghi are dancers and choreographers from Stockholm and have been active as dance artists since studying at P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels, 2013 – 2016). They have worked together as dancers in the company Rosas/Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (BE) between 2016 – 2021 i.a. Rosas Danst Rosas, Rain, Drumming, Achterland, Bartók/Beethoven/Schönberg, The Dark Red Research Project, A Love Supreme, Zeitigung, The Six Brandenburg Concertos and the dance installations: Work/Travail/Arbeid (Tate Modern, London) Brancusi ( Bozar, Brussels) and Dark Red (Kolumba, Cologne). Individually, they have collaborated with i.a. Louis Nam Le Van Ho (FR), Fieldworks – Heine Avdal & Yukiko Shinozaki (NO/JP), Robin Jonsson (SE), Wee/Francesco Scavetta (NO/IT) and Tilman O’Donnell (DE/US). They are also co-founders of the Brussels-based platform YOUNGSTERS, which arranges and creates spaces for meetings between artists and young people in Brussels.

Markus B. Almqvist
Markus B. Almqvist is a composer and dancer with a background in hip hop, electronic and contemporary art music as well as street dance and modern dance. Markus deepens his own creation by working cross-disciplinarily across practice and performance, exploring and creating new expressions for live art. Since 2011, Markus has written music for stage and film in Sweden and abroad. He studied at Gotland’s composer school and is currently studying composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.

Elias Ortiz
Elias Ortiz works on many fronts in the stage industry. With various music education behind him, he is active as a freelance drummer, studio musician, songwriter and music producer and also co-directs the music studio Studio Lur. In 2020, Elias trained as a Theatre, Event & Stage Technician at Frans Schartau’s Business Institute and since has worked as a lighting designer, sound and lighting technician and technical coordinator on several stage and TV productions.