Fredrik Rydman worked with Tim "Avicii" Bergling to create his world tour before the artist and composer decided not to tour anymore.
I got very much into the music and I think that has been lying and growing inside me. There was something in the music – in the melodies and lyrics – that was a bigger story. That's where I found the inspiration, says Fredrik "Benke" Rydman.
Experimenting
He has made modern versions of, among other things, "Swan Lake", "The Nutcracker" and "Matilda the musical". Now he wants to experiment with the boundaries between dance, music, and theater, to create a total work of art. The audience is on stage with the musicians and dancers, in a story that revolves around a couple's deepest secrets.
He and Avicii used to talk about concerts as a place where you can be free and feel community, tells Fredrik Rydman. That's the feeling he wants to achieve.
It's some kind of gathering place where everyone comes to, in that room we find the meeting. Speaking of feeling freedom and a greater sense of community in a not so obvious way but in a poetic way, that's my goal. So you go out and feel "wow, there's still a little hope and light in this time".
Poetic Images
The music is Avicii's, Fredrik Rydman thinks that the melodies with elements of both Swedish folk tradition and country have a strong emotional power. But here the music is rearranged and shaped through dance, text, and music, in grand poetic images.
I hope you'll come along on the journey and get swept away.
Fredrik "Benke" Rydman is a choreographer, dancer, and director who got his breakthrough in the dance group Bounce.
Avicii – whose real name was Tim Bergling (1989–2018), was a Swedish DJ, producer, and songwriter who broke through with the Grammy-nominated single "Levels" in 2011.
In "Lonely together" you'll see Peter Gardiner, Maja Rung, Fredrik and Alexander Lycke, Lisette T Pagler, and Sofia Papadimitriou Ledarp, together with about ten dancers and live musicians.
The performance premieres on August 29 at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm.
