STAY HYDRATED“How to do much about little.Stay Hydrated is a delightful quartet that explores and expands the simple and common action of drinking to its extreme. The challenge is set in a candid yet playful manner, inviting the 4 highly skilled performers to come up with as many ways as possible to ingest water. Done with great repartee the partly improvised proposition is astonishingly entertaining and absolutely refreshing.”-Fabrice Mazliah, Frankfurt based Choreographer

• ARTIST

• ELIAS KRAFT

• PRODUCER

• HANNA MAGDALENA GÖDL

• ARTIST

• SIMON CHATELAIN

• ARTIST

• ELLIOT NORELL STRINNÖ

• ARTIST

• HYUNGJIN LEE (not active)

• Instagram

• Vimeo

elias kraft

Elias Kraft is a freelance dance and performance artist based in Gothenburg. His work centers around improvisation, presence, and the art of live performance. He has performed with Norrdans in Våroffer, which toured nationally and was invited to the Swedish Performing Arts Biennial in 2023. Since 2022, he has toured Europe with his solo work as yet, Untitled—a piece that explores improvisation within a strong dramaturgical framework, taking on a new form with each performance through real-time decision-making and embodied intuition.Elias is a founding member of the physical theatre collective Useless Machines, which has organized residencies, performance events, and workshops across Europe. The collective also developed the practice Club Med Dancing, offered at festivals to both professional dancers and movement enthusiasts.Recently, Elias has initiated and curated two performance evenings in Gothenburg, inviting young and newly graduated local artists as well as guests from other parts of Sweden and abroad. While rooted in dance, these events are evolving to include singing, theatre, and physical theatre.Alongside his artistic practice, Elias is developing his own method for teaching dance improvisation, using simple tools such as spoken text or music to explore timing, rhythm, and communication in movement. His passion lies in highlighting stage presence as an art form in itself—one that demands skill, awareness, and openness beyond conceptual frameworks.He also runs his own artistic company for performance and creative projects, and is expanding his practice into voice acting as a complementary artistic pursuit.He works with choices, timing, contact, tension, flow and humor.

• Elias Website

simon chatelain

Simon Chatelain is a 28-year-old French performer and choreographer. He received his training at the National Circus School of Rosny sous Bois, the Conservatoire National de Bordeaux, and the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance. As a performer, Simon has participated in a variety of productions, including works by Olivier Dubois, Omer Keinan, Agnes Galpin, Konstantinada Efthimiadou, Nicolas Vladyslav, Helder Seabra, Emily Spearing, Oded Graf, Manuel Ronda, Tom Weksler, and Eduardo Torroja. He has also performed with Isaac Newton and Milla Koistinen. Simon is also a founder of a dance collective called Useless Machines where he co-created the first piece of the collective called « Stay Hydrated » performed at various festivals such as Platform 14 in Berlin and Zukunfttanz in Frankfurt.

elliot norell strinnö

Elliot Norell Strinnö graduated from SEAD – Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2022. Since then, he has worked as both a teacher and performer in Oslo and internationally. In Norway, he is active with Nagelhus Schia Productions and Panta Rei Danseteater. With his own collective, Useless Machines, he tours across Europe.As part of his work with NSP, he has performed in In C by Sasha Waltz, both in Norway and as a guest dancer for Sasha Waltz & Guests in Berlin. He has also danced in Sonett Idiot by Ingun Bjørnsgaard, which had its world premiere at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in spring 2024, and in 51/49 by Shintaro Oue, performed in Tokyo and Sapporo in 2025.Together with three fellow SEAD graduates, he co-founded the dance company Useless Machines. Their piece Stay Hydrated has toured to festivals such as Plattform 14 in Berlin, Tanecno in Námestovo, and Top Floor Festival in Brussels.

hyungjin lee

Hyungjin "Jay" Lee is a performer and dancer from South Korea. He trained dance and performance at Hansung University, Contemporary Dance major in Seoul, Korea and moved to Palucca Hochschule für Tanz in Dresden, Germany to study Classical performance and later educated and trained Contemporary dance at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance Salzburg, Austria. He has worked with Artist Elina Pirinen, Hillel Kogan, Milla Koistinen, Kinetic Orchestra, Manuel Ronda, Paul Blackman, Isaac Spencer, Meytal Blanaru, Fighting Monkeys, Edivaldo Ernesto, Helder Seabra, Annamari Keskinen, Sade and Christina Alleyne. Through these processes and works, He motivated to work in diverse creations in choreography, musicality, stage presence and dramaturgy. Hyungjin Lee is also a founder of a dance collective Useless Machines where he created and performed the first piece « Stay Hydrated » performed at various festivals such as Platform 14 in Berlin and Zukunfttanz in Frankfurt.

hanna magdalena gödl

Hanna Magdalena Gödl is a Producer, Project Manager and International Agent from Graz, currently based in Vienna and Gothenburg. Having played music all her life, she started organising concerts, tours and cultural events while living in Berlin. After relocating to Gothenburg in 2018 she completed a two-year program in International Arts & Culture Management at Kulturverkstan, worked for Sofar Sounds and eventually became Co-Director of Gothenburg Fringe Festival. From 2020 to 2023, she was Network Coordinator for the Baltic Nordic Fringe Network. After completing her training at Kulturverkstan in summer 2021, she joined the production team at Kronhuset, one of the oldest buildings in Gothenburg, which was being transformed into a cultural center and co-working space for creatives. The same year, she was hired by ilDance as a production manager for choreographers Lee Brummer and Israel Aloni, and project manager of COMPASS, a capacity building project for emerging dance artists in Sweden. In 2023, Hanna Magdalena worked as production manager for Aloun Marchal's work 'Avatared'. When ilDance joined the Creative Europe project 'Dancing Histor(y)ies - Binding Community and Heritage Through Dance as an Artistic Partner, Hanna Magdalena became the Project Manager, leading the facilitation of community workshops and site-specific contemporary dance productions at heritage sites in Italy, Spain and Serbia. Currently, she is working with contemporary dance artists and composers throughout Europe, focusing on international collaborations, co-productions and touring. As an artist, she explores themes connected to improvisation, pleasure, rituals, community and norms through sound and text.

• Stay Hydrated

• ROGER

• Symphonica

• Club Med Dancing workshop

We are and have been able to do what we do thanks to the help and support of

STAY HYDRATED
A physical theater performance combining dance, sport, comedy and a lot of water.Created and Performed by:
Elliot Norell Strinnö, Elias Kraft,
Hyungjin Lee and Simon ChatelainStay hydrated is a project born from the research on how to transform a simple and common act such as drinking water into a sportive and artistic act. Our practice within and around the piece lies in improvisation and the skills, timing and trust that is needed to be able to improvise on stage with others.

Reviews“How to do much about little.Stay Hydrated is a delightful quartet that explores and expands the simple and common action of drinking to its extreme. The challenge is set in a candid yet playful manner, inviting the 4 highly skilled performers to come up with as many ways as possible to ingest water. Done with great repartee the partly improvised proposition is astonishingly entertaining and absolutely refreshing.”Fabrice Mazliah - Frankfurt based ChoreographerWe, the festival team of „ZUKUNFT TANZT - Festival der jungen Choreografie“ have appreciated the participation of Simon, Jay, Elias and Elliot, Useless Machines, in our fourth edition in 2022. It was a great addition to the festival to have such a diverse group of young artists. They had an excellent working atmosphere, were willing to join all formats and include their expertise.
The work of the group was received as joyful yet critical, a work that brought up
fundamental questions.Frankfurt am Main, 30.01.2023
Ida Kaufmann & Laurin Thomas -Founders of Zukunfttanzt Festival

Club Med Dancing is a workshop given by the members of the Useless Machines Collective to inspire and give people the space and opportunity to fully express the free and joyous movement of dancing to music and rhythms that so easily can be lost today in a world of technical classes.
Come reveal your true moving personality, give us your sweat and your passion for dance.
Move like no one is watching and let your sensuality express itself.
Club Med Dancing is a workshop designed for anyone who wants to dance to catchy tunes and enjoy.No technical dance skills are required
This workshop is open to all experiences and bodies.

SYMPHONICASymphonica is a improvised duett, performed in tension between power and play. Possession, obsession and absurdity of conveing each individuals goal and wants are expressed through the element of a red boxing helmet.Symphonica is a show that plays around the notion of the D’s, Desire and Demand.
The show dives into the social human factors of the E’s, Empathy and Energy.
Surprisingly, it manages to tackle questions around two other prominent media presentation themed E’s, Elegance and Emptiness.
Symphonica is also a show that incorporates the concepts of the P’s, Patience and Play.
This all is possible via actions that are equally recognizable and absurd.

ROGERROGER explores the dynamics of power that shape our lives. How do we trust someone to lead us—or allow ourselves to be led? What does it mean to be a leader, a follower, or both at once?
Through a series of games played between three performers—three friends—ROGER examines the delicate balance of influence, vulnerability, and connection. It questions what it means to hold power over someone you care about, and what it takes to surrender to that control.
At its core, this performance is rooted in care, trust, and love.

Reviews“I was lucky to see the premiere of Roger at theTanecno Festival in Slovakia earlier this year, and really enjoyed this clever, funny, and moving piece. Carefully composed, it stuck to its guns in a simple and clear way. I still chuckle when remembering some of the scenes! Beautifully and confidently performed by the virtuosic trio Useless Machines.
I hope it has a long life! Brilliant work. It deserves to be seen.”Matteo Fargion - Composer, Performer, Teacher