Det Frie Felts Festival

The Shedding
Elise Reine (NO/DK)

An experimental circus piece exclusively for adults.

I bend, I bend, I bend How far? I bend into your imagination 
I'm the snake woman, the slug 
I contort 
I twist 
My tongue can lick every part of my own body 
Covered in mucus, slime I can crawl into any hole

THE SHEDDING is about changing skin, changing life, and looking for the love of death. The piece is created in a way where the audience face each other facing the performer: The performance is bifrontal. The performers body in different skins is in the middle. Her flesh. Her thoughts, Her madness.

Elise Reine is presenting a contemporary circus/performance/art/theatre/dance piece questioning the sexualization of the contortionism and the romantic image of violence against women. 
A claustrophobic rebellion against the comfort of dehumanization played out in all its vulgar absurdity in a one-woman-show.

ABOUT ELISE BJERKELUND REINE
Elise Bjerkelund Reine is a circus performer and performance creator based in Copenhagen. She is educated in Denmark and France, and in addition to creating her own works and participating in performances, she is the artistic director of Feral Festival.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CURATORIAL BACKGROUND FROM THE CURATORIAL TEAM OF SELECTED WORKS FESTIVAL 2025:
"The performance’s visual expression, where the performer moves the body at the edge of its possibilities, manages to highlight how far one can or will stretch—both physically and mentally."

ARTIST TALK AFTER THE PERFORMANCE
Elise Reine in conversation with Christine Bonnichsen - January 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM, Teatret Svalegangen, Store scene
Christine Bonnichsen Søndergaard is a graduate student in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Copenhagen, working in the intersection of practice, critique, teaching, and theoretical work to communicate art and performance.