FLAWED is a duet that dares to strip away the layers of performance until only the raw mechanics of intimacy, power, and self-scrutiny remain. Alan Lucien Øyen and Léo Lérus share the stage as both dancers and narrators of their own contradictions, shifting seamlessly between movement, spoken word, drag, and video. The work is a study in exposure — of bodies, of identities, and of the masks we construct to survive social judgment.

The choreography alternates between fragile stillness and fierce eruptions, as if each gesture is caught between resistance and confession. Lérus and Øyen inhabit states of vulnerability where every look, every stumble, and every silence becomes part of the drama. The presence of drag and video blurs the line between sincerity and performance, inviting the audience to question not only what they see, but also their own complicity as spectators.

At its core, FLAWED takes aim at misanthropy — the harsh voice that judges, ridicules, and reduces. By staging this inner critique through dance and text, the duet transforms private anxieties into a shared encounter. The performers expose themselves not to achieve resolution, but to reveal the impossibility of escaping self-doubt. In this sense, the work resists the polish of conventional dance and instead leans into the awkward, the painful, and the unresolved.

Premiered on the main stage of Dansens Hus in Oslo, FLAWED immediately stood out for its stark honesty and refusal of theatrical illusion. Its subsequent presentation at the Ice Hot Nordic Dance Platform in Helsinki brought the work to an international context, where it resonated with audiences drawn to its daring interplay of vulnerability and critique.

Through its stark language of movement and text, FLAWED asks what it means to be flawed — whether flaws are scars to be hidden, or openings that allow us to meet one another more truthfully.