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Mercury Rising
Mercury Rising emerges from a phenomenological excavation of language. Created in collaboration with and performed by Dawn Jani Birley, Rita Mazza, and Lukas Malkowski, the performance charts both ancient and future non-linear languages, navigating the terrain between communication, gesture, agency, and physicality.
Mercury Rising positions the body as a volatile site of discourse—a place where meaning is made, unmade, and transformed through movement.
While inviting its audience to decipher an abundance of signs, the work also explores the slippery nature of interpretation and ultimately releases us from the need for the literal or the explanatory. Incorporating multiple sign languages, and created for all audiences—including Deaf and hearing audiences—Mercury Rising addresses the complexity of human communication on the brink of a paradigm shift. What we share, in the end, is not certainty—but the impossibility of full understanding, and the urge to connect nonetheless.
Credits
Choreography: Jefta van Dinther | Created and performed by: Rita Mazza, Dawn Jani Birley, Lukas Malkowski | Costumes and stage: Cristina Nyffeler | Lighting design: Jonatan Winbo | Sound design: David Kiers, including "Run for Your Life (feat. La Chat)" by Clipping, "Cangilón" by Nicolás Jaar and "Momentaries" by Bjarni Gunnarsson | Backdrop surface: Gonçalo Sena | Dramaturgy: Gabriel Smeets | Artistic advice: Maja Zimmermann | Rehearsal director: Tomislav Feller
Technical direction: Andrea Parolin and Fabian Bleisch | Light: Fabian Bleisch | Sound: Andrea Parolin | Management: Sven Neumann | Distribution: Sarah De Ganck, ART HAPPENS | Production management: Uta Engel and Romy Hansford-Gerber | Financial management: transmissions GmbH (DE) and Interim kultur AB (SE)
Mercury Rising is produced by Jefta van Dinther | Co-production: Norrlandsoperan Umeå, Cndc – Angers (Accueil Studio), Dansens Hus Stockholm, Dansnät Sverige, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and PACT Zollverein Essen | Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Fonds Darstellende Künste
In 2025 Jefta van Dinther was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Swedish Arts Council
Resources
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Artwork: ©Adam Munnings & ©Rhys Powell / Press Photography: ©Cecilia Gaeta
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Texts
2025.02.05
Marit Strandberg, Västerbottens-Kuriren
Vi måste acceptera att allt inte kan förklaras
Teckenspråkets möjligheter utforskas i Jefta van Dinthers nya verk. Marit Strandberg anar en ordlös begynnelse.Det är en av vinterns kallaste dagar men i Norrlandsoperans foajé är det många människor som trotsat kylan för att se den välrenommerade koreografen Jefta Van Dinthers senaste verk Mercury Rising. I detta verk, som hade premiär i höstas i Berlin, undersöker han tillsammans med döva och hörande dansare teckenspråkets möjligheter att vara ren visuell kommunikation. Ett abstrakt dansverk där vi – som det sägs i introduktionen – ”behöver öppna oss för att begripa – men inte begripa”.
Skulle upplevelsen bli djupare förklarad om vi helt kunde förstå vad som förmedlas? Eller är dansen och rörelsen det enda som behövs, tillsammans med ditt lyssnande, ditt observerande och ditt intresse? Hur mycket behöver visas för att förståelse skall uppnås? Hur mycket kan destilleras, tas bort – bli renat, avsminkat innan kommunikationen inte fungerar?Här bjuds vi in till en situation där den hörande som inte förstår teckenspråk behöver anstränga sig och acceptera att inte allt kan förklaras, att inte allt är en berättelse med en början och ett slut.
På scenen ses en stor svart ram och bakom den det som ser ut som en grottvägg. På den väggen skall ljuset dansa och skapa ibland skrämmande skuggor ibland en fond för ljuden och rörelserna. I ramen avgränsas det som önskas bli synligt.De tre dansarna sitter på svarta kuber inom ramen nästan hela föreställningen och det gör det lätt att se dem. Se deras personligheter, där en bär på explosiviteten, ilskan, agiteringslusten. Hon vill skapa plats, höras, synas och hon talar ett kraftfullt språk. Vidare den noggranna, envisa, nyfikna och egensinniga. Hon är den som inte ger upp. Och så han med skruvar i håret och energi som en svart kopp kaffe. Han som håller ihop det utan att dominera, men ibland exploderar i spasmer och drama.
Ljudmattan designad av David Kiers och Andrea Parolin väcker associationer i oändlighet och om oändlighet. Vi hör skrap och skär, det dunsar, fräser. Vi hör getingen som förgäves attackerar glasrutan för att ta sig ut till friheten. Vi faller ner i havets djup. Vi hör en mässande shaman och avloppssystem där någon slår i rören från en avlägsen plats. Dansarna tecknar växelvis samspelt och böljande som pulsen på en val och växelvis från en isolerad plats. Sen, blixtar av ljus som av en häftig svetslåga där svetslopporna plötsligt lyser upp i rummet. En helikopter smattrar i fjärran. Plötsligt rör sig den svarta ramen på scenen bakåt och strax börjar dansarna bearbeta klippväggen, de ristar i berget, skriver, gräver, arbetar. Är vi i den ordlösa begynnelsen? Så tar det tvärslut och överväldigade av vad vi sett och känt ger vi oss åter ut i den iskalla kvällen.
2025.02.05
Marit Strandberg, Västerbottens-Kuriren
We Must Accept That Not Everything Can Be Explained
In his new work, Jefta van Dinther explores the possibilities of sign language. Marit Strandberg senses a wordless beginning.It is one of the coldest days of winter, yet the foyer of Norrlandsoperan is full. People have defied the cold to see the renowned choreographer Jefta van Dinther’s latest work, Mercury Rising. Premiered last autumn in Berlin, the piece brings together deaf and hearing dancers to explore sign language as pure visual communication. An abstract dance work where, as stated in the introduction, we are asked to “open ourselves in order to understand – but not to understand.”
Would the experience deepen if everything could be explained? Or is dance and movement enough, together with your listening, your gaze, your willingness to stay? How much must be shown for understanding to emerge? How much can be stripped away, distilled, cleansed, before communication breaks down? We are invited into a situation where the hearing spectator who does not understand sign language must make an effort — and accept that not everything can be explained, that not everything is a story with a beginning and an end.
On stage stands a large black frame. Behind it, something resembling a cave wall. Upon this wall the light dances, at times casting frightening shadows, at times forming a backdrop for sound and movement. Within the frame, what is meant to be seen is held. For most of the performance, the three dancers sit on black cubes inside the frame, making them easy to observe. Their personalities come forward: one carries explosiveness, anger, a will to provoke. She wants space, wants to be heard and seen, and she speaks with force. Another is meticulous, stubborn, curious, willful — the one who does not give up. And then there is he, screws in his hair and energy like a cup of black coffee. He holds things together without dominating, though at times he erupts in spasms and drama.
The soundscape by David Kiers and Andrea Parolin opens endless associations — associations of infinity. We hear scraping, cutting, thuds and hisses. A wasp hurls itself again and again against a windowpane, desperate for freedom. We sink into the depths of the sea. A chanting shaman. An unseen place where someone strikes the pipes of a sewage system. The dancers sign — at times together, undulating like the pulse of a whale; at times from isolated positions. Then sudden flashes of light, like a fierce welding flame, sparks briefly illuminating the room. A helicopter beats in the distance. The black frame begins to move backward, and soon the dancers turn to the cliff wall: carving, writing, digging, working. Are we at the wordless beginning? Then it ends abruptly. Overwhelmed by what we have seen and felt, we step back out into the icy evening.
Work
Mercury Rising
Mercury Rising emerges from a phenomenological excavation of language. Created in collaboration with and performed by Dawn Jani Birley, Rita Mazza, and Lukas Malkowski, the performance charts both ancient and future non-linear languages, navigating the terrain between communication, gesture, agency, and physicality.
Mercury Rising positions the body as a volatile site of discourse—a place where meaning is made, unmade, and transformed through movement.
While inviting its audience to decipher an abundance of signs, the work also explores the slippery nature of interpretation and ultimately releases us from the need for the literal or the explanatory. Incorporating multiple sign languages, and created for all audiences—including Deaf and hearing audiences—Mercury Rising addresses the complexity of human communication on the brink of a paradigm shift. What we share, in the end, is not certainty—but the impossibility of full understanding, and the urge to connect nonetheless.
Credits
Choreography: Jefta van Dinther | Created and performed by: Rita Mazza, Dawn Jani Birley, Lukas Malkowski | Costumes and stage: Cristina Nyffeler | Lighting design: Jonatan Winbo | Sound design: David Kiers, including "Run for Your Life (feat. La Chat)" by Clipping, "Cangilón" by Nicolás Jaar and "Momentaries" by Bjarni Gunnarsson | Backdrop surface: Gonçalo Sena | Dramaturgy: Gabriel Smeets | Artistic advice: Maja Zimmermann | Rehearsal director: Tomislav Feller
Technical direction: Andrea Parolin and Fabian Bleisch | Light: Fabian Bleisch | Sound: Andrea Parolin | Management: Sven Neumann | Distribution: Sarah De Ganck, ART HAPPENS | Production management: Uta Engel and Romy Hansford-Gerber | Financial management: transmissions GmbH (DE) and Interim kultur AB (SE)
Mercury Rising is produced by Jefta van Dinther | Co-production: Norrlandsoperan Umeå, Cndc – Angers (Accueil Studio), Dansens Hus Stockholm, Dansnät Sverige, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and PACT Zollverein Essen | Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Fonds Darstellende Künste
In 2025 Jefta van Dinther was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and Swedish Arts Council
Resources
Images
Artwork: ©Adam Munnings & ©Rhys Powell / Press Photography: ©Cecilia Gaeta
Videos
