La Mia Bella Sorella is a performance duo consisting of soloist with The Royal Danish Ballet Astrid Grarup Elbo and classically trained violinist Katrine Grarup Elbo.

In this constellation, the two performers constantly work towards finding a shared voice and format that surpasses the classic dance with musical accompaniment. By using the sounds of the moving bodies in the scapes of sound and by generally equating the presence of the two artists on stage, a joint language, in which the audience sees the music and hears the dance, is developed. A visually and performatively setup, also given the fact that the two performers look confusingly similar to one another.

Taking off in the early Spring of 2018, the duo has initiated the new project Africa Is Not A Country, We Are All Africans, a collage of text, sound and movement made in cooperation with The Trampoline House (DK). The project is still in its early stages and is to be developed throughout 2018, e.g. during a summer residency at Mudhouse Residency (Greece).

Astrid Grarup Elbo started dancing in 1997.

She is educated at The Royal Danish Ballet School from 2002-2012. She joined The Royal Danish Ballet in 2012 and was promoted to soloist in 2018. She has performed in all productions at RDB since 2010. Astrid is a 2018 recipient of Dronning Ingrids Hæderslegat.

Soloist parts include Solo Girl in Rubies (Balanchine), Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (Wheeldon), Dew Drop in The Nutcracker (Balanchine), Dryade Queen in Don Quixote (Hübbe), Symphony of Psalms (Kylián), Vertical Road (A. Khan), Pas de Trois in Swan Lake (Hübbe, Schandorff).

Creations include Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons (Cathy Marston), 7 Tcherepnin piano pieces (Adam Lüders), Rystet Spejl (Kim Brandstrup), KNOW (Idan Sharabi).

She has worked with choreographers and instructors such as Ohad Naharin, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett and she had her film debut as Polly in the movie Darling, autumn 2017 (directed by Birgitte Stærmose).

Self-choreographed solos for Stravinskij’s Histoire du soldat as well as for Stravinskij’s Three solo pieces for clarinet performed, among other places, at The Black Diamond / Royal Library, Copenhagen.

Get in touch: astrid@lamiabellasorella.com

Katrine Grarup Elbo started playing the violin in 1995.

She is educated at The Royal Danish Academy of Music from 2009-2016 and with professor Stephan Picard (Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin) in Berlin. Based in Berlin since Summer 2016.

Founder and member of the performance collective We like We (established 2012). Appearances with this ensemble include festivals and venues such as Roskilde Festival (DK), Dias Nordicos Madrid (E), Classical:NEXT (NL), Fusion Festival (DE), Nordklang Festival (CH), Festival Musica Estranha São Paulo (BR), Roter Salon @Volksbühne Berlin (DE). Involved in workshops and performances with the dance company Corpus, Copenhagen. During 2018/19 We like We are composing the music for a new opera produced by Nordic Opera, set to premiere in Copenhagen in the late Summer 2019.

Starting from November 2018, Katrine will be collaborating with Italian fiber artist Luisa Longo. Their first appearance together will be at Castello del Valentino for the opening of Longo’s solo exhibition on November 2. Katrine will be performing her own compositions and improvisations inspired by the works of Luisa Longo.

With support from Koda’s Cultural Funds and by the help of sound engineers Jonny Zoum and Antonio Pulli, she recorded for her first solo project at Funkhaus Berlin in December 2018. The work is to be released in 2020.

Katrine is regularly involved with orchestras such as The Danish National Symphony Orchestra (DR), Danmarks Underholdningsorkester, South Denmark Philharmonic, etc. She has been touring Europe, Russia and China with orchestras and ensembles such as Baltic Youth Philharmonic and DUEN.

Artistic collaborations also include performances and releases with artists such as MØ, Quadron and Hymns of Nineveh, and she is featured on the soundtrack of the Ai Wei Wei movie Human Flow (2017).

Katrine was a member of The National Danish Girls Choir from 2001-2007.

Get in touch: katrine@lamiabellasorella.com