Fields Of Tender

▶︎ Dalija Acin Thelander

We‘ve worked with Dalija since 2023, with a focus on presenting her ambitious new work, Fields of Tender - both in the UK and internationally.

Image Credit: Krsto Vulovic

Dalija Acin Thelander is a freelance choreographer and researcher working across the performing arts, with a focus on audience agency, intersensoriality, and immersive choreography. Since 2008, she has developed sensory dance performances for neurotypical and neurodivergent babies and young children. In 2022, she began a three-year academic research project at Stockholm University of the Arts, exploring transdisciplinary methods to foster sensory immediacy, kinesthetic response, and intersubjectivity. Her work for young audiences has been presented internationally in Asia, Europe, South America, and Africa, and she has created commissions for the Royal Opera in Stockholm. She teaches and lectures worldwide, and has received the ASSITEJ International Artistic Excellence Award (2021) and the Swedish Expressen Culture Award (2023). Born in Serbia, she lives in Stockholm.

“A sensory installation for the very youngest”

Image Credit: Krsto Vulovic

Fields of Tender is an intimate performance work for very young audiences and their carers, created by choreographer Dalija Aćin Thelander. Blending movement, sound and sensory design, the work invites audiences into a carefully held environment shaped by gentleness, attention and shared experience.

Designed specifically for babies and young children, the performance creates space for exploration, proximity and connection - offering an alternative to traditional theatre formats through a slower, more responsive mode of engagement. At its core, Fields of Tender is a choreography of care. Performers and audiences share the same space, with the boundaries between watching and participating intentionally softened. Through subtle shifts in movement, rhythm and atmosphere, the work encourages curiosity and attentiveness, allowing each audience member to experience the performance in their own way. The piece reflects Dalija Aćin Thelander’s ongoing exploration of early years performance, placing trust in the perceptual and emotional capacities of very young audiences. It creates a space where connection is prioritised over spectacle, and where the smallest gestures carry meaning.

Image Credit: Krsto Vulovic

Fields of Tender has been presented internationally, connecting with audiences across a range of cultural contexts and venues. Each presentation is carefully adapted to its setting, maintaining the intimacy and integrity of the work while responding to different spaces and audiences.

The project reflects an ongoing commitment to supporting international artists and touring work that expands the possibilities of audience engagement. Through its touring life, Fields of Tender sits within a wider ecology of work exploring how performance can reach and resonate with different communities, particularly those often underrepresented in traditional theatre contexts. As Fields of Tender continues to tour, it offers a model for how performance can be both artistically rigorous and deeply accessible. Its ongoing journey reflects a broader interest in creating work that connects across generations, geographies and experiences - opening up new ways of thinking about participation, care and shared space.

Credits

Choreography and overall design: Dalija Acin Thelander

In collaboration with and performed by: Noah Hellwig, Jimmie Larsson, pavleheidler, Jilda Hallin

Music: Thomas Jeker

Digital animation and interactive technologies: Filip Mikic

Supported by

Supported by: Menų spaustuvė/Arts Printing House (Vilnius, Lithuania), Kulturhuset Dieselverkstaden (Stockholm, Sweden), Muzeum Susch / Art Stations Foundation CH (Susch, Switzerland), LaSala (Sabadell, Spain)

The 2025-26 UK tour is produced by Third Version Creative and supported through public funding by Arts Council of England.