When the Cat’s Away

A cat and mouse game with dance, film and performance. An play on mimicry and interference that invites us to question our memory and perception. Projections in an inner room are contrasted with a performance in an outer room. The spectator can watch each section separately or in sequence. When The Cat’s Away questions the authentic and the manipulated in actions and space, while raising.

Claire Parsons is interested in reconstructions, retakes and variables of reality using the body as tool and expression. In different types of performances and enactments she researches the relationship between the individual and the physical body, where inner actions and outer permutations become present. Her methods highlight visual elements and individual eccentricites of each performer/dancer. In combining a dynamic choreographic language with visual perceptiveness, she plays with visual and physical contrasts. As choreographer she has continually chosen her own path on the Swedish arena and her works have widened the Swedish concept of dance and performance. In a number of ecclectic works she has created performances that reflect on the relationship of the audience and the dancer from various perspectives.

She has initiated collaborations and created experimental works that connect visual art, film and installation. She pioneereed the use of video and dance in Sweden, using video projections as scenography as in the successful coming undone or cloning herself in a loop combining the role of dancer and choreographer in Replay. Claire Parsons performances celebrate poetic humour and performance through an ecclectic spectrum.

Concept Claire Parsons and Mateusz Herczka
Performer/dancer Moa Westerlund
Sound composer Mikael Svanevik
Costume design Lena Lindgren
Hair and masque Gunilla Pettersson
Costume construction Bitte Palm

Curator: Camilla Carlberg, Moderna Museet