AIR BODY SAD
- C-print
- Oct 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 26
Malik Nashad Sharpe for Norrdans
AIR BODY SAD
October 25, 2025, Dieselverkstaden, Stockholm
Dancers: Viktoria Andersson, Gorik Bellemans, Ruben Brown, Silas da Silva Roller, Alvilda Faber Striim, Kaelin Isserlin, Kevin Julianto, Sierra Kellman, Sofia Larriera, Ellie Vermunt
Although soon entering my 40s, any piece of work using "coming of age" as a selling point still unfailingly draws my attention. As a millennial who grew up with large quantities of teen films in the late 90s, perhaps it's the nostalgia? I recently (re)watched two films, Can't Hardly Wait (1998) and Booksmart (2019), with almost identical plots: last night of high school, party like there's no tomorrow, no regrets, life starts tomorrow. Even years later, I can still call to mind the feeling of heading home on the first bus at 6 a.m., still drunk, high on life, feeling both uncertainty and excitement at once. And that is the vibe (ish) channeled in AIR BODY SAD, British-American choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe's piece for Norrdans that premiered earlier this fall in Härnösand. But just a little darker, perhaps more like Larry Clark's cult Kids (1995) or HBO's Euphoria (2019-) for a more recent reference.
Sharpe has previously shown at MDT under his alias Marikiscrycrycry, but this is my first time seeing his work in person. In an interview with Dansehallerne in Copenhagen, where the piece was performed earlier this week, Sharpe said that he's aspired to make a piece where the notion of "coming of age" meets horror and fantasy. Gaspar Noé's insanely intense and nightmarish Climax (2018) was stated as an inspiration, a film that fittingly sees a dance troupe go berserk on a retreat ahead of going on tour. The connection isn't far-fetched, but prior to the performance, based on the promos, Gisèle Vienne's blockbuster Crowd, a work that also exudes youth and decadence, inevitably instantly also sprang to mind.
A sole dancer (Gorik Bellemans) is already on stage as we take our seats. Lights go off, and another dancer (Kaelin Isserlin) soon crawls onto the stage, kicking a beer can around. A fight breaks out, and over the next hour, a ton of plausible fighting ensues. Kids messing around, exchanging blows and kicks. "You don’t like me, fuck you. You don’t like me, fuck you," are words offered by the music mix on stage (osquinn's jealousy is a bitch i hate her) at some point. Clear liquids are consumed from plastic bottles, contents are poured over faces, people canoodling around in all corners of the stage. The opening solo is followed by a synchronized choreography à quatre that makes me think of stuff I’ve seen on socials. The music, a genre-crossing mix, is epic, a body of its own. Kudos to the music director. It makes me miss euphoric dancing.
Except for the unexpected, heart-wrenching finale played out to Scorpio by james k & hoodie (echoing Björk), the piece is unusually straightforward. Have I not seen this before? Blame pop culture, but this is another youth tale that really connects with me. Erik Anneborn’s costumes are eclectic in style and rich in detail (one dancer sports a jersey with the words "Ordningsvakt" on the back), and a lot of thought and production has gone into Felix Villiers's set, which looks like a dystopian back alley in shambles with its crashed cars and tagged walls.
As for the dancers, there are no weak links. The solos are mesmerizing, the ensemble scenes only get better over the running time. I spot superstars in the midst, but everyone makes their presence known and seen. The dancers move like I imagine young people do today—or wish they did. It’s a whole vibe and I could have stayed immersed in it far longer than the 45 minutes. But the length is refreshing; there really are no dull moments. For the first time in a long time, I wish a piece would have continued for just a little bit longer.
Artistic Team:
Choreography and Lighting Design: Malik Nashad Sharpe
Music Direction: Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura
Composer: Luke Blair
Set Design: Felix Villiers
Costume Design: Erik Annerborn
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Ahead of the performance, we checked in with Martin Forsberg who has served as the Artistic Director for the company since 2019, and will next year move on to Regionteater Väst as the new Theatre Director.
C-P: Hi Martin, you have been the Artistic Director of Norrdans since 2018. What is it like running a company out of Härnösand where you were also born and raised? Pros and cons vs a bigger city?
M.F: It can feel like a brain fart to work with international contemporary dance in the same small town where I once biked to football practice. Yet there’s an intimacy here that a metropolis rarely offers. People know each other. A phone call can replace a committee. You can actually see decisions ripple through a community. Outside the urban landscape, focus becomes sharper. Less noise, fewer distractions. It’s a place that forces depth. At times it’s lonely, yes, but that loneliness sharpens purpose. For an art form that lives in the body, this proximity between people and the absence of spectacle can be a quiet superpower.
C-P: What has been your overall artistic vision for Norrdans?
M.F: To show the full spectrum of contemporary choreography: the radical, the tender, the conceptual, the visceral. My aim has been to lower the threshold to the experience of dance while expanding its reach. The higher the tower you wish to build, the broader your foundation must be. Inclusion and norm-creativity are not side projects; they’re the engine of renewal. I see Norrdans as a living institution, one that questions its own architecture. Institutions can easily petrify. To stay alive, they must critique their own walls and invite others to draw on them.
C-P: Norrdans recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with a work titled AIR BODY SAD by London-based Malik Nashad Sharpe, aka Marikiscrycrycry. I'm sad to have missed the premiere and celebration in Härnösand but am very glad to see it this week at Dieselverkstaden in Stockholm. As a trained choreographer yourself, what do you look for in other artists?
M.F: Art is plural. It’s the light refracted through a prism. I’m drawn to artists who understand that dance is both a mirror and a megaphone, intimate and public at once. Over time my focus has shifted, but I look for choreographers who can engage our dancers in demanding, layered processes and speak to the curiosity of our audiences. In Air Body Sad, that means teenagers (13 and up) discovering both euphoria and grief in the same beat. It’s essential that artists lead art institutions. When artistic vision drives the structure, audiences can feel the integrity behind the work.
C-P: As a company that tours extensively, I'm a little curious about "touring ecology" in this day and age. What should people know about it?
M.F: Touring is our second language. Norrdans spends around twenty weeks a year on the road, mostly across the vast geography of Northern Sweden, our cardinal mission. The touring body of the company is both muscle and memory. To tour today means balancing mobility with sustainability. It’s logistics meeting ethics. We meet audiences in the periphery, in gym halls and ice rinks turned theatres, and that encounter, that handshake at the edge, is what defines us. Working in the margins keeps the art form honest. It reminds us that the centre only exists because someone keeps moving around it..
For more info on Norrdans visit: norrdans.se