Frédéric Gies (they/them) is a dancer and choreographer based in Malmö. Oscillating between clockwork composition and the intensities and chaos generated by dancing bodies surrendering to the desires and forces that traverse them, their dance pieces bring to the forefront the capacity of dance to speak independently from language. Drawing from their former training in ballet, their encounter with specific trends of contemporary dance at the beginning of the 90s, their dance floor experiences in techno clubs and raves and their study of somatic practices, they approach forms as possibilities rather than constraints. Recycling and perverting dance history and heritages, their dances weld forms seemingly foreign to each other. They playfully collapse the distinction and hierarchies between erudite and popular forms of dance. In their pieces, bodies as the instigators of movement don’t reinforce identities but excavate the complexity of their layers.
Since 1996, they have created more than 30 performances, including commissions by Weld Company, DDSKS and Corpus. They present their works locally, regionally, nationally and internationally in various contexts, including dance venues and festivals, music festivals and museums (amongst others: Weld, Inkonst, Skogen, Dansens Hus, Impulstanz, CTM festival, Sophiensaele, Serralves, Roskilde festival, RAS, Moving in November, Wanås Konst, Zürich Moves, La Casa Encendida, Art Stations Foundation, Tanzhaus NRW...). So far, they have presented their work in 21 countries. They also had an extensive career as a dancer, working with Daniel Larrieu, Olivia Grandville, Ania Nowak and Cristina Caprioli, amongst others. They also teach in various contexts, including at university level. They have been the head of programme of the MA in choreography at DOCH-SKH. In 2021, together with Anne Juren, they were the mentor at DanceWEB. Their practice Technosomatics, which they started to share in 2014, has encountered a broad echo.