Aabent Rum 2026: Joana Öhlschläger

Joana Öhlschläger is a German choreographer and dancer based in Copenhagen.

Together with a range of collaborators she constructs sensorial universes that use humor, surprise and twisted cliché to invite audiences into places of physical recognition, imagination and feeling. Her most recent works are porch, pool, shoreline (2025), ALL GOOD IN (2024), piece off / a lecture performance (2023) and ETERNAL SUPPORT ACT (2023).

Joana holds an MfA in Choreography from The Danish National School of Performing Arts. She is co-founder of KOMMA Performance Productions, a production cooperative in the independent field of dance and choreography.

IN THE FRAME OF AABENT RUM
“I am curious about epic gestures in the favor of dance; about the insistence on moving in a time that can make us feel stagnant and unable to move.

Within Aabent Rum I will work on choreographic material for vast spaces and many bodies. I find my work become alive in the blend of the mundane and the happening: I seek a sense of chaos and raw feeling(s) paired with the magical, heightened presence of the performative act, and I am curious and excited to keep working right in that unruly place.

Together with a team of artistic collaborators who I deeply appreciate and the highly experienced and caring team of Aaben Dans I expect to dig into the edges and layers of my practice: making embodied feeling the key motor in creating and sharing choreography.”

Aabent Rum

Aabent Rum is an artistic development program – organized and curated by Aaben Dans with support from the the Augustinus Foundation.

Aaben Dans invites one or more artists per year to come to Roskilde and work with a method or artistic project of their choice. The Aabent Rum program offers a fee, space to work in and organizational, artistic and technical support by sharing the competencies of Aaben Dans. Artists commit to sharing their work either through a showing, conversation or other format that is appropriate.

Please see the list of artists who have been in the development program in previous years here

More about Aabent Rum

Previous artists in Aabent Rum

2025
The artistic basic research project FOCUS ON THE SENSES
with choreographer and artistic director, Aaben Dans Thomas Eisenhardt in collaboration with Niels Christian Holm Sanden, Academic staff member and PhD, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Tone Roald, Associate professor, Center for Phenomenological Psychology and Aesthetics at the University of Copenhagen, Tina Unger, agronomist and director, Sct. Hans Haverne, Ida-Elisabeth Larsen, choreographer, dancer, and dance dramaturg, Institute of Interconnected Realities, Pernille Møller Taasinge, rhetorician and development manager, Aaben Dans, and Nanna Nielsen, film anthropologist, Kanvas Film.

2024
Olivia Rivière (DK/SE) and Lisen Pousette (SE) and, among others, the performance DUNKEL

2023:

Ruth Rebekka Hansen with the performance and installation of “Ripe Body”.

2022:

Katrien van den Velden, Lara Vejrup Ostan and Ida Mariboe Nielsen with the love-performance SONG OF SONGS.

Julie Rasmussen, Maren Fidje Bjørneseth and Rickard Fredborg in collaboration with filmmaker Morten Arnfred and music by Daniel Nicholson – the movie THE MEATLUMP.

Fabio Liberti a moveable installation of plastic and meat THERE IS NO AWAY/A SELF PORTRAIT.

2021:

Snorre Elvin + Nanna Stigsdatter with the performance “Pour It”.

2019-2020:

Antoinette Helbing with the solo “The Laughing Game”.

Georgia Kapodistria with the solo “BETWIX AND BETWEEN” and a group showing.

Anna Lea Ourø and Amalia Kasakov with the duet” Just Ok”.

Terms and conditions

Aabent Rum is a choreographic development program curated by Aaben Dans.

Choreographers receive an honorarium and a small budget. They can choose to spend money on putting together a creative team, researching other people’s artworks, investigating a method or diving into their artistic work. Aaben Dans provides skills and knowledge to support the artist’s development.

The choreographers are carefully selected according to these criteria: they must be at the beginning of their professional career, they must have an artistic core and drive, they must have something to say and be based in body and choreography, and they must live in Denmark.

The choreographers provide inspiration for Aaben Dans, the professional environment and the local audience in smaller screenings, interventions, workshops, symposiums or other public events.

Aaben Dans emphasizes the relationship with the artist and invites the artist(s) of the year to participate in conversations, lunches, in the warehouse, in the administration and onto the stage. Aaben Dans is interested in the artist’s process, thoughts and development in both the present and the future.

For mutual benefit

In addition to studio and production space, we make the expertise and know-how of the theater available to the young artists. They decide what makes sense for them to work with – right where they are in their artistic career. Aaben Dans watches and listens – and provides ongoing guidance. The choreographers respond with inspiration – both to Aaben Dans, to the professional community and to the local audience in smaller screenings, interventions, workshops, symposiums, digital or other public events.

Watch the video below from Aabent Rum 2023 with Ruth Rebekka Hansen.