After many years of studying with teachers in Spain and Sweden, flamenco remains an important part of my artistic practice as a dancer, choreographer, costume designer and producer.
What continues to draw me to flamenco is the meeting of movement, music, rhythm and emotion, and the connection that emerges between performer, musicians and audience. My own approach is also shaped by a broad background in different forms of dance and music.
Chicos Fritos & Josefine. Production by Chicos Fritos, Olle Pelayo Lind and Jonathan Bondesson. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO0Pg0-eSwIEl Padre by Strindberg, production by Ballet Flamenco la Rosa, Miami. Playing the role of Bertha.El Noble Arte de Mentir. Choreography and dance by Josefine Chiacchiero and Rebecca Rubin. Production by Josefine Chiacchiero. Supported by the Region of Stockholm.Vi är grannar nu! Production by Odissi Dansproduktion. Chorepgraphy and Dance by Ulrika Larsen, Karin Ericson and Josefine Chiacchiero. Costume and setting design by Josefine Chiacchiero. Supported by Swedish arts grants from the City and Region of Stockholm, from the Arts Council of Sweden.Badsagor, Västertorps simhall, production by Odissi Dansproduktion. Chorepgraphy and Dance by Ulrika Larsen and Josefine Chiacchiero. Trio el Gancho, Rebecca & Josefine, Kungasalen, Kungliga Musikhögskolan. Choreography and dance by Josefine Chiacchiero and Rebecca Rubin. Mar Flamenca, Dansmuseet Stockholm. Choreography and dance by Josefine Chiacchiero. Musicians Rocío Vilaplana, Nicolas Lazo Zubieta and Johan Moberg. Production by Mar Flamenca.Tronco by Mar Flamenca. Choreography and dance by Josefine Chiacchiero. Supported by Swedish arts grants from the City.Facetas de Flamenco, production by Josefine Chiacchiero. Choreography by Angel Rojas, Josefine Chiacchiero, Jenny Martínez and Máximo Martín. Supported by arts grants from the Arts Council of Sweden.Amor Flamenco summer tour in Sweden. Production by Josefine ChiacchieroFlamenco de los niños. Choreography and dance by Pia Pohjakallio and Josefine Chiacchiero. Supported by Swedish arts grants from the City and Region of Stockholm.Karnevalfolket. Production by Karnevalfolket.
Installations & Exhibitions
I create art for the stage and beyond: in theatres, museums, parks, swimming pools and other public spaces. My work sometimes moves between dance, choreography and interdisciplinary performance, often created in collaboration with dancers, musicians, artists and cultural organisations.
Dansboxen – Scenkonstmuseet
How can flamenco dance and music come alive in a museum? How can visitors experience it, explore it and be inspired to dance themselves?Dansboxen is a permanent interactive installation at Scenkonstmuseet in Stockholm, bringing different dance genres into the museum through dance, live music and participation. The flamenco part was created with dancers Josefine Chiacchiero and Rebecca Rubin and musicians Mukryan Abubakr, Kim Persson and Jonathan Bondesson.
Made in Sweden – Tändsticksmuseet
How can a flamenco concert become an artistic exhibition? And what can stories of factory workers tell us about working life today? As Artist in Residence at the Match Museum in Jönköping, I worked with the museum archives to explore the lives behind the history of industrial production. I was particularly drawn to the stories often missing, those of working women and children, and found parallels between their experiences and contemporary questions of work, precarity and exhaustion.
Together with composer and musician Jonathan Bondesson and installation artist Niklas Pohlman, I explored these themes through flamenco – using music, movement, costume and visual installation to bring the archive into the present. Made by Who takes its title from everyday spoken language – deliberately choosing “who” rather than the grammatically correct “whom”, reflecting the everyday lives and people so often missing from history. Artist in Residence – Made in Sweden, Match Museum, Jönköping. Photo: David Karcenti.
Sounds of Foothold – Götaplatsen
How can movement be brought into a fixed structure? Created during the #MeToo movement, Sounds of Foothold transformed Carl Milles’ monumental Poseidon through a four-metre-long flamenco skirt. The textile installation explored movement, expression and presence within the fixed form of a public monument – allowing Poseidon, for a moment, to dance at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg. Textile art installation by Josefine Chiacchiero.
Snurr – Dansmuseet
What happens when we spin – and why is turning such a fundamental part of dance? For the temporary exhibition Snurr at Dansmuseet in Stockholm, I contributed flamenco dance and choreography exploring the turn as movement, rhythm and expression. The exhibition brought together different perspectives on spinning – from ritual and folk traditions to ballet, flamenco and contemporary dance forms. Flamenco dance and choreography by Josefine Chiacchiero.
13Festivalen – Konstepidemin
How can a body in motion express exhaustion and stillness? In Pompei, I explored different ways of exhibiting burnout through the moving body. Textile, sound, space and performance created a live painting, a physical landscape of exhaustion. Through headphones, the audience entered a parallel sound world, including my interpretation of the theme from The Godfather, transformed into an expression of being struck by silence and stillness. Pompei, 13Festivalen, Konstepidemin, Gothenburg. Textile art, sound installation and performance by Josefine Chiacchiero.
NONES – Stockholm settings
What happens when everyday life becomes a performance? In five Olympic-inspired performance installations across Stockholm, GoGoNo, NiNaNo 1 & 2, ComoNo and SìoNo explored work and exhaustion, sleep and dreams, solitude and belonging, diversity, truth and illusion. Dance and music moved through unexpected settings: from Stockholm Central Station and Hagaparken to Kungsträdgården and cultural venues.
Each performance created its own world: a dancer racing against time during the Stockholm Marathon; parallel realities of youth and age, dreaming and waking; a celebration of colour and the meeting of different genres; and, finally, castles in the air built from looped sound and pieces of stage flooring – asking what is true and what is not. Concept, Choreography, Costume and Dance by Josefine Chiacchiero. Supported by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Textile art
I grew up surrounded by fabrics and colours in my parents’ textile shop. I started sewing at an early age, eventually creating costumes for stage and performance.
Costume installation, Poseidon statue, Götaplatsen, GöteborgCostume design Vi är grannar nu!, Jordbro Kulturhuset, Stockholm.Costume design and installations ELDLED, Andra Våningen, Göteborg.Textile installation Pompei, 13Festivalen art gallery Konstepidemin, Göteborg. Costume design EL NOBLE ARTE DE MENTIR, Jordbro Kulturhus, StockholmCostume design, Tronco Flamenco
Josefine Chiacchiero 