Marcus Baldemar "Finally Fantastic"

MDT have been following and presenting Marcus Baldemar’s work for a few years, starting with the solo GALDR in 2019 (presented in the framework of Life Long Burning as a part of Stockholm Pride in 2020) and the group piece Polari Speaking Sex in 2021. In Finally Fantastic, Marcus develops his interest in queer history and legacy, creating a cross generational piece about community and dying. Marcus is an important and unique voice in the Swedish dance field, who tries different methods in his different pieces, making it an important and interesting artistry to follow and make space for.

Finally Fantastic was part of a special co-production model with extra resources, where MDT pays a co-production amount of 70 000 sek, and also covers a freelance producer for six and an inhouse technician for four weeks. The producer and technician also follows the piece on tour, to the first two stops. This is a way for MDT to support freelancing artists with limited resources to build a stable organisation, to give them the stability they need to develop in their artistry.

Finally Fantastic was also a co-production with Dansinitiativet in Luleå, where it was presented November 20^th.

About the piece:

Finally Fantastic is a fleshy, moving and highly visual dance performance that wants to depict a togetherness, a togetherness right up to death, and how dying can coexist with the imaginative and joyful, the erotic and intimate.

Finally Fantastic can be seen as a meeting place and a common burial ground where a collection of people of different generations do, die and are together. The work has drawn inspiration from Ruth Coker Burk’s cemetery in the US, which was established in the 80s during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, at a time when the disease was called “the gay cancer”. The cemetery was dedicated to homosexuals who died alone and abandoned because of the stigma of the virus. Today we see loneliness as another ongoing pandemic.

MDT has previously shown Marcus Baldemar’s works GALDR (2019) and Polari Speaking Sex (2021). Just as in previous works, he takes his cue from events from history and creates a choreography that speaks to and works in the present.

We die a death we wish to die, together!

View the experience report in the upper right column.

Gallery pics © John Artur