SIREN DANCE

The Siren calls her onlooker into her alluring arms. Is this an innocent gesture born from desire for true connection, or a cunning tactic and peacockish display of power? Honesty is slippery and situations transform before they can be fully grasped. What might appear as truth can so easily reveal itself as fiction.

The Dance wants to seduce her audience. She wants them to fall deeply infatuated with details and her logic. The Dance will shape-shift for eternity, in an attempt to attain the power of The Siren. As new embodiments materialize, old skins dissolve into memory.

In Siren Dance, classicism collides with contemporary visions of truth, magnetism and deception to question what seduction looks like and for how long disguise can endure.

Lilian Steiner is an Australian dancer and choreographer, whose practice champions the deep intelligence of the body and its unique ability to reveal and comment on the complexities of contemporary humanity. Her interests extend into experimental sound and visual design practices where the body is the base for questioning and expression.

Lilian’s choreographic work spans stage productions, gallery performance and object-based installations, video works and DJ set live-shows. Significant Australian presentations include for Dancehouse Melbourne, Dance Massive, Sydney Dance Company’s New Breed and INDance programs, the Keir Choreographic Award, Gertrude Contemporary, Chunky Move Activator’s commissioning program, BLEED Festival, Next Wave Festival and Melbourne Now (National Gallery Victoria). Significant international presentations include at Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (Paris), B.Motion Danza (Bassano del Grappa), Homo Novus Festival (Riga), Deltebre Dansa (Deltebre), Fête de la Musique (Geneva) and Festival Constellations (Toulon).

Since 2010, Lilian has worked in Australia as a major performer/collaborator with Melbourne-based company, Lucy Guerin Inc., with choreographers Phillip Adams, Melanie Lane, Shelley Lasica and Brooke Stamp, and with numerous artists working with live performance and film in the fields of visual arts, experimental sound and architecture/design. Lilian joined Cullberg as a dancer for their 2023/24 season.

KONTRÄR is a programmed venue for experimenting contemporary performing arts.

Siren Dance is a part of STHLM DANS, an international contemporary dance festival taking place in Stockholm region 2-12 May 2024. STHLM DANS places dance in new contexts, creating new opportunities for diverse dance artists to present creative formats and bold ideas. https://sthlmdans.se