Motor Unit

Sati Veyrunes,

Erna Ómarsdóttir and Adrienn Hód

Sati Veyrunes (1995) is a French dancer and performer trained at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). Based in Marseille, her practice lies at the intersection of dance and performance. She collaborates with Oona Doherty, who in 2020 passed on to her the solo Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus, which has been presented internationally, and develops her own projects, including Bless the Sound that Saved a Witch Like Me and Motor Unit.

Icelandic choreographer, dancer, and performer, and artistic director of the Iceland Dance Company, Erna Ómarsdóttir (born in 1972) is a graduate of P.A.R.T.S. (Brussels). She has collaborated with numerous artists, including choreographers Jan Fabre and Damien Jalet, visual artist Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, Björk and Jóhann Jóhannsson, and filmmaker Jonas Åkerlund. She is a founding member of the collectives Ekka (Reykjavik) and Poni (Brussels)

Adrienn Hód (1975) is an internationally renowned Hungarian choreographer and has been the artistic director of HODWORKS since 2007. Her work explores the body in motion, freed from social and cultural conventions, through creations that straddle the boundaries of dance, theater, and performance. A multiple recipient of the Rudolf Lábán Prize, she also choreographed the film Son of Saul, which won an Oscar in 2016.

Concept and performance by Sati Veyrunes – Original choreography by Adrienn Hód and Erna Ómarsdóttir – Recreation and technical adaptation, tour production by Marie Montfort Prédour, Lisa Marie Barry, and Thibault Gambari – Outside perspective by Mathilde Roussin. 

PART 1, Based on Voice of Power (created in 2023) – Choreography by Adrienn Hód / Hodworks – Co-creation and original performance by Imola Kacsó – Additional music by Ábris Gryllus, Relent I

PART 2, Manual Melody, based on IBM1401 – a user’s manual (premiered in 2002) – Concept, choreography, and original performance by Erna Ómarsdóttir – Music composed by Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orchestration by Jóhann Jóhannsson and Arnar Bjarnason – Strings performed by the Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mario Klemens – Recorded in Prague, September 2005

Motor Unit premiered on March 12, 2026, at the Ménagerie de verre in Paris

Executive production: Ménagerie de verre, Paris

Co-productions: CCN Ballet national de Marseille, CCN Ballet de Lorraine, CDCN Uzès, La Maison Danse, Les Hivernales - CDCN d'Avignon, Le Lieu Unique – scène nationale de Nantes, Cndc - Angers, CCN de Grenoble, Charleroi Danse - Centre Chorégraphique de Wallonie-Bruxelles, OFF Foundation – Budapest

Special thanks to Philippe Quesne, Christine Maupetit, Philomène Jander, and Dora Pentchev