The Lemonkeepers

Press quotes
Photos
Video excerpt


Johnson’s lemondance is no bitter pill. It is chock-full with vitamins … It is great art!

Majbrit Hjelmsbo, Weekendavisen, 2004

The Lemonkeepers is a visual chamber piece for three men, 221 lemons and a blue rope. The performance might also have been called ‘Three men on a raft’. The situation is exactly the same. For some unknown reason the three men, the rope and the lemons have been brought together somewhere in the world, under the sky, over the water, with no chance of escape. The Lemonkeepers is like a pause in time. An opportunity for observing a cornucopia of paradoxical possibilities. And humour … humour accompanies us like a stowaway.

The creation of The Lemonkeepers has taken its point of departure in three unique male performers. Each have a multiplicity of diverse knowledge and talent with them. With these they have infused the performance with elements of dance, performance, New Circus, theatre and music.

The Lemonkeepers premiered at Dansescenen in 2004.

The Lemonkeepers made it to the magazine NOW Toronto’s Top 10 list in 2004, with Kitt Johnson’s solo Stigma. Dance critic Glenn Sumi wrote: This was one of the best dance years in recent memory. … Here’s what moved T.O. this year. … Denmark’s Kitt Johnson showed her versatility in this double bill [The Lemonkeepers & Stigma], the first piece a clown-inspired experiment with three men, a rope and about a hundred lemons, the second a riveting solo about isolation and persecution. Johnson never repeats herself… Hope she returns.
Glenn Sumi, NOW Toronto, December 2004.

Choreography: Kitt Johnson
Devising ensemble: Karl Stets, Samuel Gustavsson, Itzik Gabay
Music: Sture Ericson
Light design: Mogens Kjempff
Costume design: Charlotte Østergaard

Duration: 65 min.

Touring history

Produced by Kitt Johnson X-act with the support of the Danish Arts Council, Statens Kunstfond, Wilhelm Hansen Fonden, Augustinus Fonden, Danmarks Nationalbanks Jubilæumsfond af 1968, and Tuborgfondet.

Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen
Performers: Itzik Gabay, Samuel Gustavsson