The Syncopators

The Syncopators is a performance that takes place in public space. It builds on the solo Fictions of the Flesh (2021) by the same makers. Featuring five performers, the choreography draws from jazz dance techniques and combines them with speculative future fiction from literature and film to inspire new and superhuman corporealities. 

The title is derived from the word syncope, a deviation from an expected rhythmic pattern in music or dance, often placing dynamic accents on weaker beats or omitting stronger beats. Syncopation is a feature of jazz dance as a genre, and the performance itself may disrupt the regular flow or habits in a particular public space. Moreover, the title is an allusion to typical science fiction movie titles that have inscribed themselves in our cultural memory.

The Syncopators questions the conceptual boundaries of dance as art, which are closely linked with colonial history, and intends to contribute to their expansion.

The Syncopators

Awards

• 2018/2019 Norwegian Critics Association Award for Dance with Deep Field
• 2015 Nominated for the Hedda Award with Cosmic Body
• 2014 Dance Critics Award for Best Performance with HOODS
• 2012 Oslo Award for Best Performance with Night Tripper

Review

“We see five people, decked out in synthetic-looking clothing, black with purple, pink, red, orange, blue. They kind of look like plastic insects. They move, sometimes seemingly uncoordinated each to his own, running around or rolling past and over each other. At some point they form a tangle of people and plastic, after which the group disintegrates again.”

Neil van der Linden wrote a review of The Syncopators for Theaterkrant. Read the entire review here.