The Court (2026)

Is it possible to rehearse for a future in which history doesn’t hurt as much?

In 1997, sociologist Avery Gordon described haunting as a “constituent element of modern social life. It is neither pre-modern superstition nor individual psychosis; it is a generalizable social phenomenon of great import. To study social life, one must confront the ghostly aspects of it.” Departing from Gordon’s hauntology, The Court explores Western dance history as a form of dystopian speculative fiction, composed of unresolved or neglected pasts that obstruct our ability to imagine anything but destructive futures. Our research seeks to address the moments in which our seemingly forgotten pasts begin to flirt with and limit our present. How can these

temporal confusions generate alternative historical narratives¾narratives compounded by re-imagined histories of neglected bodies and oppressive cultural fictions? Can we rehearse for a multiplicity of undying futures?

Throughout this research project, we’ve continually returned to the royal courts of the Baroque era and their court de ballets, marking a significant shift in the West’s relationship with dance as it transitioned from social pastime and chaotic gathering to today’s hyper focused amphitheater and professionalized spectacle. This transition can also be viewed as a haunting repository of unresolved pasts, considering the political power of dance during this period and how it laid a violent foundation for Western dance history as we know it today. A history established by Louis XIV in the 17th century, aimed at promoting his class-based, homophobic, racist, and misogynistic propaganda.

As the title suggests, The Court therefor takes on Louis XIV’s court parties, their dances and social activites as spaces of performative politics and blends them with contemporary references, to blur the boundaries between our past and present. With this show, we want to make a performance that feels like an absurd, counter-historical pocket in time, where fantasy, social relations, baroque dances, sex orgies and past and present embodied fictions intertwine to form new connections and alternative narratives. The performance will be choreographed by Ingri Fiksdal and Louis Schou-Hansen for ten performers and is planned to play out over the duration of approximately three hours, through which the audience are free to move in and out of the theater.