Photo Louise Herrche Serup
Photo Ena Kurtagic Granulo
The performance is curated and presented by CPH STAGE in collaboration with Aviaja Dance and Dansehallerne.
About the performance WHITEOUT
Winner of Dance Performance of the Year at the Årets Reumert Awards 2025.
WHITEOUT – a thought-provoking and life-affirming dance performance about loss.
When you find yourself in an Arctic whiteout – a natural phenomenon where snow swirls around, and everything turns white – you may experience a sensation similar to grief: any sense of direction disappears.
WHITEOUT delves into the painful longing, unbearable thoughts, shame, and taboos surrounding suicide.
On the other side of a whiteout, which demands introspection and reflection, you find yourself re-anchored in the world – we reconnect and create bonds across divides.
The performance sheds an important light on a topic that we, as outsiders, must not shy away from. At the same time, it explores the life-affirming aspects that the bereaved often speak of: the ability to reflect on the value of relationships and communities, and, above all, the gratitude for having known someone.
Photo Ena Kurtagic Granulo
Credits
Choreographer Sarah Aviaja Hammeken
Choreographic Assistant Amanda Rubio Sánchez
Dancers Amanda Rubio Sánchez, Shih Ping Lin,
Eydís Rose Vilmundardóttir, Márton Debreczenyi
Composer Gerth Lyberth
Light Design Brian Cord’homme
Dramaturgical Consultant Siri Paulsen
Costume Design Parnuuna Kristiane Thornwood
Photographer Amalie Ivalo Hammeken
Photo & Trailer Ena Kurtagic Granulo
Producer Sebastian Nervil
Administration Jens Christian Jensen
Professional Consultants Paarisa and DRISP, Danish Research Institute for Suicide Prevention
Co-production Dansehallerne, Nunatta Isiginnaartitsisarfia/ Greenland’s National Theatre, Nordic House in the Faroe Islands
Supported by: The Danish Arts Foundation’s Project Support Committee for Performing Arts, Knud Højgaard’s Foundation, NAPA, Wilhelm Hansen Foundation, Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen’s Foundation, Beckett Foundation, William Demant Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen - Kulturpulje til projekter mellem Grønland og Danmark, Nordic Culture Fund. The performance is curated and presented by CPH STAGE in collaboration with Aviaja Dance and Dansehallerne.
Photo Ena Kurtagic Granulo
About the artist
Sarah Aviaja Hammeken Choreographer and dancer
Sarah Aviaja Hammeken (DK/GL) is the founder of AVIAJA Dance, a platform where she explores and develops her choreographic practice. Her artistic journey is driven by a profound interest in the intersection of the physical body, dance, and society, often drawing inspiration from her Inuit (Greenlandic) heritage.
In 2023, after spending several years abroad, she brought SILA to life at The National Theatre of Greenland, followed by its Danish premiere at Dansekapellet, marking her return to the Danish art scene. SILA was showcased at ICEHOT in Oslo in 2024.
In 2024, Hammeken created two new works: SOIL, commissioned by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and premiered during Berlin Art Week 2024, and Speech/less, an interactive dance performance produced by Dansehallerne as part of their KORA program. Her accomplishments earned her a spot in the ‘Young Artistic Elite’ career program for 2024–2025, awarded by the Danish Arts Foundation.
In February 2025, Hammeken’s latest work, WHITEOUT, premiered at Dansehallerne before touring Nuuk, Tórshavn, and Tromsø.
Photo Ena Kurtagic Granulo
Practical info
Dates and times
28.5.2026, 18:00
29.5.2026, 20:00
30.5.2026, 16:00
31.5.2026, 15:00
Duration and stage
approx 1 hour in Hallen
Dansehallerne’s address
Franciska Clausens Plads 27, 1799
Copenhagen V.
Accessibility
The venue is wheelchair accessible, with an elevator providing access to the stages. All restrooms are genderneutral, and an accessible toilet for wheelchair users is available.
About Dansehallerne
Dansehallerne is a national center for dance and choreography. Our focus lies in presenting and co-producing Danish and international productions for all ages. We are a gathering point for passionate dance audiences and professionals. From our center, we communicate professional knowledge of the art of dance, and we drive discussions about all aspects of the art of dance, at an intermediate level and in-depth.
Being a national center, as well as a gathering point for the local and international communities, we continuously work to ensure the best possible settings for artistic production and for the audience’s encounter with the art of dance. Every year, people from all around the country can experience the best that dance has to offer. And for several hundred artists, Dansehallerne is the year-round base and interface for professional activities within the field of dance.
Performance Program
About the performance Detached
from Others
Detached from Others is a choreography of loneliness performed by Kenzo Kusuda. Accompanied by the sound of an organ, Jon R. Skulberg and the iconic dancer Kenzo Kusuda explore the solitary body. Through Kusuda’s unique sensitivity, we catch a glimpse of the ambivalence of loneliness somewhere between self-imposed isolation and the experience of being unwillingly alone.
The organ music, composed by Lil Lacy, demonstrates her talent for crafting immersive and sensual soundscapes. In Detached from Others, she takes the organ as her point of departure – an instrument inherently solitary, confined to a single space and its reverberations, and possessing a distinct architectural and sonic presence. While an organ often plays alone, in Detached from Others it encounters itself through multiple recorded layers, intricately mixed within a quadraphonic sound system.
Detached from Others explores the universal experience of loneliness, highlighting its dual nature as both a fundamental human condition and a critical societal issue. While chosen solitude can offer a sense of peace and introspection, involuntary loneliness remains one of today’s most pressing public health challenges, with more than one in ten people feeling isolated and disconnected.
A special artistic encounter
The performance is created in close collaboration between Jon R. Skulberg, artistic director of Convoi Exceptionnel, and composer Lil Lacy. Together, they have developed new and uncompromising formats. The organist is David Bendix Nielsen, who challenges traditional perceptions of the organ. The music is recorded and mixed by the sound producer Preben Iwan, renowned for his expertise in capturing classical works in technologically innovative formats. The costume is designed by clothing designer Koh Taniguchi. The dramaturgy is developed in collaboration with Astrid Hansen Holm.
Photo Louise Herrche Serup
Credits
Concept, stage direction and space
Jon R. Skulberg
Dancer Kenzo Kusuda
Composer Lil Lacy
Organist David Bendix Nielsen
Music recording producer, senior head of edit, mix, and sound mastering
Preben Iwan
Costume designer Koh Taniguchi
Music editor, assistent music
recording producer
Mette Due
Dramaturge Astrid Hansen Holm
Sound technician Kristian Hverring
Performance Producer Nikoline Jørgensen
Producer Sofie Mønster
Administration Jens Christian Jensen
International relations
Sigrid Aakvik
Production Convoi Exceptionnel
Presented and co-produced by Dansehallerne
Supported by: The Danish Arts Foundation, Augustinus Fonden, Beckett Fonden, William Demant Fonden, The Danish Composers’ Association (DKF), Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden. Thank you to: Vor Frelsers Kirke and Husets Teater.
Photo Louise Herrche Serup
About the artists
Jon R. Skulberg
Jon R. Skulberg is a Norwegian artist based in Copenhagen and the Artistic Director of Convoi Exceptionnel. Skulberg aims for his works to function as potential fitness centres for empathy, fostering a renewed understanding of the world and each other. Convoi Exceptionnel works with a movement-based and cross-aesthetic approach, creating original works at the intersection of dance, opera, music, and installation. Skulberg is educated from Norwegian Theatre Academy, Fredrikstad, Institute of Dramaturgy, Aarhus University, and Dance Studies, Copenhagen University and works as stage director, choreographer, and scenographer. In 2016, he founded Convoi Exceptionnel.
Kenzo Kusuda
Kenzo Kusuda is a Holland-based Japanese choreographer/dancer. He is a unique phenomenon in the world of dance and reveals the poetry of the dancing body in a personal and often breathtakingly intense manner. In the days he was studying economics and business management and working parttime at the fish market in Tokyo, Kusuda discovered dance as his form of expression and gained almost immediate recognition with his very personal and intense movement language. Kusuda’s work stems from a highly original imagination and aims for a communication with his audience precisely by finding a connection with their imaginative powers.
Lil Lacy
Lil Lacy is a DK/US composer and musician. She has refined her curiosity of composition and improvisation in creative collaborations of a long series of artistic projects. Lacy is Artist in Residence at the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra (2024-2027) and part of several ensembles in the Danish avantgarde scene as a vocalist and experimental cellist. She has performed and has had her music performed in Europe, America, Australia, and Japan, and has released several critically acclaimed and award-winning albums with different ensembles. Graduated in 2020 with an Advanced Postgraduate Degree in Music in Classical Composition from The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus and a recipient of the Léonie Sonning Talent prize 2020.
David Bendix Nielsen
David Bendix Nielsen is a trained organist from The Royal Danish Music Conservatory and Hochschule für Music and Theater Hamburg and debuted as a soloist in 2019. David is the organist at St. Mark’s Church in Frederiksberg and has been on the concert program in e.g. Westminster Abbey in London, basilique Sainte-Clotilde in Paris, Copenhagen Cathedral, and several European festivals. In 2018, he received the Léonie Sonnings Talent Prize, and in 2022/23 the grant “The Young Artistic Elite” from The Danish Arts Council. In 2022 David’s first organ album Bach & Pärt was released by the English recorded company Orchiud Classics. David is the artistic director of the concert series Orgeldrømme and the ensemble Arte Divine.
Preben
Iwan
Preben Iwan, occupies a unique position as one of Europe’s finest producers within the classical music scene. His professional background as a French horn player, with leading positions in the Copenhagen symphony orchestras, has given him a musical base that very few producers have. Add to that a unique technical training as ‘Tonmeister’ for 10 years when employed as chief sound producer at The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, and you have a perfect classical producer. Preben Iwan’s work has led to numerous international awards and nominations, to him as well as the artists and labels he has been producing for.
Koh Taniguchi
Koh Taniguchi is a fashion designer based in Budapest. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Tokyo Mode Gakuen College of Fashion and Design. After completing one semester in the Design for Planet Master’s program at Designskolen Kolding in Denmark, he moved to Hungary. Growing up in Tokyo surrounded by technology, he has always been drawn to futuristic designs, but also value the warmth of handmade craftsmanship. He finds beauty in “imperfect completeness”— the little flaws that give things their warmth and character.
Astrid Hansen Holm
Astrid Hansen Holm is a trained dramaturg from Aarhus University and Universität Wien. Astrid works as a director, dramaturg, and stage director with a particular focus on musical narratives and productions. In addition to her work with Datterselskabet, Astrid is a freelance dramaturg, librettist, and director. She has worked with Convoi Exceptionnel, Ruby Gamache, and Opera Nord, among others. In 2022, Astrid received a Reumert nomination for the production TYK.
Photo Louise Herrche Serup
Practical info
Dates and times
28.5.2026, 20:00
29.5.2026, 18:00
30.5.2026, 18:00
31.5.2026, 17:00
Duration and stage
1 hour in Blackboxen
Dansehallerne’s address
Franciska Clausens Plads 27, 1799
Copenhagen V.
Accessibility
The venue is wheelchair accessible, with an elevator providing access to the stages. All restrooms are genderneutral, & an accessible toilet for wheelchair users is available.
About Dansehallerne
Dansehallerne is a national center for dance and choreography. Our focus lies in presenting and co-producing Danish and international productions for all ages. We are a gathering point for passionate dance audiences and professionals. From our center, we communicate professional knowledge of the art of dance, and we drive discussions about all aspects of the art of dance, at an intermediate level and in-depth.
Being a national center, as well as a gathering point for the local and international communities, we continuously work to ensure the best possible settings for artistic production and for the audience’s encounter with the art of dance. Every year, people from all around the country can experience the best that dance has to offer. And for several hundred artists, Dansehallerne is the year-round base and interface for professional activities within the field of dance.
Performance Program
