ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE

shivr is a being of twilight: neither/nor. Both/and. Alive between the realms of the sick and the well. Eternally non-dying. A crack in your political porcelain.

shivr is a body-horror dance solo by choreographer Ar Utke Ács. The performance portrays the fictional character shivr, constructed as a mosaic of lived experiences. Through shivr, the performance explores the chronically ill body as a non-binary position – a world rooted in a queer, sick body rather than a healthy or pre-disabled body and mind.

shivr illuminates aspects of a sick dancing body that are otherwise invisible, and the process of finding a voice through embodiment rather than didacticism. The performance uses body-horror as an expression of the chronically ill experience, where fear does not arise from “the other,” but from the transformations occurring within one’s own body. shivr insists on the complexity of embodying both/and and neither/nor in a single body: neither sick nor well, both monstrous and scream queen, neither perpetrator nor victim, both dissociation and euphoria, neither desire nor disgust.

shivr is the first part of the trilogy the unapparent, which depicts non-binary positions based on the queer and chronically ill body. Each performance represents a character – an archetype – proposing a different body-mind configuration and, consequently, a different way of creating worlds.

shivr is co-produced with MDT (SE) and Dansehallerne (DK). The performance is created in collaboration with visual artist Sofie Winther / Puer Parasitus and photographer and visual artist Fryd Frydendahl, with textual co-conspiracies developed together with the poet Yolanda Aurora Bohm Ramirez.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ar Utke Ács – Choreographer and Performer
Ar Utke Ács works with contemporary dance and performance within the expanded field of choreography. They explore the poetics and politics of the body through performance, dramaturgy, text, installation, social choreographies and the imaginary. Ar is based in Copenhagen and Stockholm and holds a BA in Dance Performance from Stockholm University of the Arts. They are a member of Dance Cooperative and höjden studios (SE). Ar has co-produced works with, among others, Dansehallerne, MDT (SE) and BIT Teatergarasjen (NO) and has presented their work at BalticCircle (FI), Open Out/Tromsø Kunstforening (NO), Index Art Foundation (SE) and Charlottenborg (DK).

Fryd Frydendahl – Visual Artist and Photographer
Fryd Frydendahl divides her practice between Hvide Sande and Copenhagen. She works with photography and visual art and is educated at Fatamorgana (2006) with an advanced certificate from The International Center of Photography (2009). Frydendahl has exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions at V1 Gallery, Politikens Galleri and Baxter Street Gallery, The Camera Club, New York. She has received grants from the Danish Arts Foundation, Fogtdal Travel Scholarship, The Henry Margolis Foundation, Josephine Merit Scholarship and Ny Carlsberg Foundation (2024). She is represented by V1 Gallery (Copenhagen) and LINKDETAILS (Stockholm), and her works are included in collections at the National Gallery of Denmark, The Danish National Art Collection, The Royal Library, Kunstmuseum Brandts and Ny Carlsberg Foundation. Frydendahl currently serves as school director at Fatamorgana, Denmark’s School of Photographic Arts.

Sofie Winther – Interdisciplinary Artist
Sofie Winther works across sculpture, installation, performance and video. Her practice draws on personal experiences and themes such as kinship, labor, and power, combining traditional craftsmanship with innovative technologies. Winther challenges conventional boundaries between art and function, creating works that provoke dialogue about social structures and global consumption. She is the founder of Puer Parasitus (2021), a project at the intersection of fashion and sculpture, working with recycled and textile materials in three-dimensional, experimental works that question norms around consumption, gender and power.

TOASTER PERFORMANCE BIENNALE

In April 2026, Toaster presents Denmark’s first international performance biennale, taking place across Den Frie and Husets Teater.

The biennale offers a current portrait of the performance field within both visual art and performing arts – and the many intersections between them – which are rapidly evolving nationally as well as internationally. The focus is state of the art: taking the temperature of the field right now.

Experience more than 20 performances, including 10 entirely new works created specifically for the biennial. The artists range from established performance practitioners to emerging talents – sometimes within the same work.

The programme encompasses works rooted in dance, text, costume, sound, light, music, and space. Performance is here and now – it is the time we live in, and the time we choose to spend together.