This performance has been canceled

The choreographer began his career as a celebrated rapper. Now, he has created a unique dance concert about the dangers of fame.

How far are you willing to go to achieve fame? In ‘Tribute to me’, a solo performance featuring Amy Pender as the performer, we witness a young woman’s quest for belonging and social status. “Like me, Like my videos, love my comments”, the performer almost pleads in an intensely absorbing dance concert that explores the fine line between fame and status, privacy and publicity, and the confrontation between digital and actual identity.

It was not a given that Martijn Joling (1991) would become a dancer, but after first being introduced to hip hop, and later contemporary dance and performance art, he never looked back. Joling started his career as a rapper in his home country, receiving numerous national awards and performing at hundreds of events. However, he transitioned to studying modern theatre dance at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (2014) and has danced his way through Europe in recent years, eventually settling in Drøbak, Norway.

The choreographer’s diverse background inspires him to combine various media, including stage design, installations, film, live music, and poetry, as well as expressions from Breakdance, Judo, Release-Technique, and improvisation. As a choreographer, Joling is influenced by contemporary trends. He delves into current topics that young people can relate to, focusing on strong emotions and inner conflicts. His first full-length work, ‘Clean Bastards’ (2021), was highly acclaimed by audiences, and in 2022, ‘Tribute to me’ was nominated for the Momix Junior Prize.

Joling was part of the talent program for young choreographers at the CODA festival in 2020-2021 (Creative Lab), and from 2019-2022, he was one of three selected artists for the FAILURE lab, which is part of the international PUSH+ program organized by, among others, Scenekunstbruket. His works have been presented in Spain, Egypt, Japan, Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, France and Norway.

About the performer:

Amy Pender (born 1990) is a Norwegian dance artist based in Drøbak, trained at the Amsterdam University of the Arts with a 4-year BA in Modern Theatre Dance (2014). She interned at the Iceland Dance Company, and in 2015, she joined the EEA project “Sniper’s Lake” by Spitfire Dance and Physical Theatre Company (Czech Republic). She toured with the company for 2 years.

In addition to her immersing in Klein Technique, Penders practice is largely influenced by work with improvisation. In the fall of 2019, she was selected as one of two Norwegian performers to participate in David Zambrano’s “60 Days of Improvisation” – a closed further education program in improvisation with 70 specially invited artists from around the world.

As a performer, she works both nationally and internationally with choreographers and companies such as Hagit Yakira Dance (NO), Yaniv Cohen (NO), Bodytalk Tanz Theater (DE), David Zambrano (BE), Cecilia Miosio (NL/FI), Blenard Azizaj (DE/AL), among others.