Philip Berlin - La Ronde

La Ronde is a choreography built from circular and revolving movement, marked by spherical leaps, sudden accelerations and a physical claiming of the entire space. The dance travels in multiple directions at once, cutting through space with a frantic physicality. The work reflects on the necessity of excess and waste, exploring the immanent intelligence of dancing and its insatiable pull towards complexity.

Maxime Denuc’s music, composed within the sonic world of pipe organs, moves between the repetitive pulse of club music and the instrument’s spherical intensity. The primary instrument for the piece is the organ at St. Antonius Church in Düsseldorf.

Running alongside the choreographic process is a digital-archaeological approach: an anachronistic use of a tool inspired by Merce Cunningham’s DanceForms software, a groundbreaking artefact from the early 1990s. This method bridges digital historicity with contemporary choreographic inquiry.

Philip Berlin is based in Stockholm and works with dance in Sweden and internationally. He has presented his works at Dansens Hus in Stockholm, the Oslo Opera House, MDT – Moderna Dansteatern, and Moderna Museet.

Berlin investigates phenomena such as the spirituality of dancing – in other words, how the technical parameters of dance function as a means to the spirit, excess, transgression, and virtuosity as political, artistic, and intellectual practice.

Berlin has been a recurring artistic collaborator with Cristina Caprioli and worked closely in the creation of Omkretz which was presented at MoMA PS1 New York, the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, and Fabbrica Europa in Florence.

Furthermore, he has collaborated with Gisèle Vienne and toured internationally with the production Crowd. Berlin has worked with CCN – Ballet de Lorraine, where he danced in works by Merce Cunningham, Mathilde Monnier, William Forsythe, Tero Saarinen, Faustin Linyekula, and Maria La Ribot, among others. He has also performed in works by Mårten Spångberg, Sidney Leoni, Frédéric Gies, and Mats Ek,to name a few.

Between 2014 and 2019, together with Ulrika Berg, Cristina Caprioli, and Anna Grip, he initiated the project SUNDAY RUN UP – a context bringing together artists working in literature, choreography, music, and visual arts.

Since 2016, Berlin has worked as a visiting lecturer in dance at the Stockholm University of the Arts.