Primary Partner

Premiere and guest performance at Turteatern 23 aug-1 sep 2024

Primary Partner is a show with and by choreographers and performers Amanda Apetrea and Cornelius. And with them is scenographer and costume designer Daniel Åkerström-Steen.

In the show we meet two characters in a romantic reverie of the world and all its beauties. They are extreme in their love of everything that has to do with romance, partnering, relationships, dating, meet cutes and happy endings. They have contact with the audience, speaking directly to them and with them, but mostly at them, like a non-listening parent.

Apetrea, Cornelius and Åkerström-Steen developed a triptych starting with ”I’m a Very Understanding Woman,” in 2015, a contemporary dance performance exploring gender and violence. The second piece, ”SPRINGTIME,” examined the roles of heterosexual reproduction, pleasure, and labor. The series concluded with ”There Will Be Men,” which delved into masculinity through the lens of early 20th-century film characters, blending vaudeville with gender theories by Virginie Despentes. Imagine Laurel and Hardy meets Fight Club, or the Marx brothers meet Quentin Tarentino.

With and by: Amanda Apetrea, Cornelius
Scenography, costume, hair & makeup design, light design: Daniel Åkerström Steen
Producer: Sara Bergsmark (Johnson & Bergsmark)
Technician: Jonathan Sandberg, Viktor Ros Palmklint, Josef Moberg
Administrative structure: Interim kultur
With support from: Kulturrådet, Konstnärsnämnden, Region Stockholm
In collaboration with: Turteatern