BUTTERFLY KISSES

Premiered in June 2026

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A performance about transformation, beauty, and transience.

Inspired by the Large Blue butterfly (Phengaris arion)—a rare butterfly that in Denmark is found only on the island of Møn—the performance unfolds through poetic portraits of remarkable women from different eras and places.

From Maria Sibylla Merian to Frida Kahlo and Loïe Fuller, we encounter people driven by curiosity, artistic vision, and lifelong passion.

The performance unfolds as a collage of stories, dance, costumes, and transformations. The butterfly is both a real creature and a powerful symbol—of life’s fragility and humanity’s longing for meaning.

Butterfly Kisses is a tribute to everything that transforms us and connects us.

Many people experience the butterfly as more than simply an insect; it has become a living metaphor for the transformation our society and our landscapes are undergoing.

The butterfly is both tangible and symbolic: an image of the soul, death, love, and beauty. Its life as a butterfly is brief, while most of its existence is spent in metamorphosis.

Fragile and fleeting, it spends its short time in flight searching for a mate and beginning the cycle anew. In contrast stands the human being—with our longing for meaning, legacy, and direction.

Butterfly Kisses is a visual and sensory performance in which art, nature, and human lives are woven together. We journey through a series of short, poetic portraits of women who all followed a powerful inner calling: scientific curiosity, artistic vision, and lifelong dedication. Along the way, we also discover the extraordinary story of the Large Blue butterfly.

Performers: Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen & Tilde Knudsen
Director: Peter Kirk
Costume Designer: Susan Marshall

Produced by Asterions Hus Theatre.

Recommended for adults, young people, and children aged approximately 10 and above.

Produced with the support of the Danish Arts Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, and Brand af 1848.

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Reviews

★★★★★☆

“Poetic Puppetry and Beauty in Butterfly Kisses”

Anne Middelboe, ISCENE

Nature is wild—especially on the island of Møn.

At Asterions Hus and Teater Møn, it is naturally the Large Blue butterfly that takes centre stage in Butterfly Kisses. Abstract and physical, poetic and grotesque—and remarkably intelligent. As one of the compressed lines of text puts it: “Thyme. Marjoram. Sun. Ant.”

Butterfly Kisses is an artistic triumph for Asterions Hus, led by Peter Kirk and Tilde Knudsen. As director, Peter Kirk has refined the distinctive physical theatre language previously seen in the company’s Alice in Wonderland, a production that has toured internationally at festivals around the world.

Tilde Knudsen interprets the butterfly’s story with extraordinary physical precision. She throws herself into an astonishing range of choreographic expressions—quirky, humorous, and deeply committed. Exceptionally trained, she effortlessly transforms herself from caterpillar to aristocratic lady on the verge of fainting, always with mischief in her eyes and humour in her feet.

It is a delight to watch her in playful dialogue with Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen, who begins the performance as the accordion-playing musician before gradually releasing her own body into the subtle life of the butterfly—with angular movements, gentle dark eyes, and infectious joy. As the two performers sway across the stage in their sculptural costumes layered over black bodysuits, projections of hand-drawn butterflies from different periods appear behind them. Beautiful and exquisitely delicate.

Visually, Butterfly Kisses succeeds thanks to the exceptional costume design of British costume designer Susan Marshall. A costume historian at the University of Milan, she has nevertheless devoted her artistic passion to Asterions Hus and the island of Møn.

Marshall’s costumes are sculptural works of art. Smooth fabrics fold into cubist constructions that flow around the performers’ necks and hips. Throughout the performance, the human body transforms into the chrysalis of the Large Blue before becoming caterpillar—and finally emerging as butterfly. Her signature white textiles, stitched together with visible cross-stitches, create cubic hats, tubular bodices, and rounded hips in an endless stream of imagination.

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★★★★

Cecilie Refsager, Set på Scenen

On stage, Tilde Knudsen and Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen embody multiple life cycles in both butterfly and human form. Sometimes an entire human life unfolds in only a few minutes. The result is often striking, even if the relationship between the butterfly and the remarkable women is not always immediately explicit.

They are magnificently supported by Susan Marshall’s remarkable costumes. Teater Møn and Marshall share a fascination with costumes that evolve and transform before our eyes—becoming one thing in one moment and something entirely different the next. It is particularly effective when an elegant evening gown suddenly becomes an insect, or when delicate white butterfly wings appear and disappear in an instant. Here one truly appreciates the extraordinary craftsmanship behind the work.

Performers: Helga Rosenfeldt-Olsen & Tilde Knudsen
Director: Peter Kirk
Costume Designer: Susan Marshall

Produced with the support of the Danish Arts Foundation, the Knud Højgaard Foundation, and Brand af 1848.