5 june 2016
14.00 – 16.00 Choreographed reading circle with Ellen Söderhult
17.00 – 19.30 (incl intermission) A full evening with three works by choreographer Malin Elgán
Free admission, no booking required
A choreographed reading circle is an investigation into how methods for dance can meet methods for group readings.
We propose that reading together can be to dance together, and how we dance is structured by a choreographer every session. The choreographers choose text, methods and format for the experiment according to their own artistic interests. Taking part in a choreographed reading circle involves asking yourself what an event like this is and can be. We all participate with our curiosity, our eyes, our bodies, our voices and our thoughts. Everybody who wants to join is welcome, no preparation is needed. It is always possible to participate as a spectator/listener/witness or as reader/dancer.
The circles are held in Swedish or English. Participants are welcome to use the language they are most comfortable with. We help to translate when needed.
A different artist is invited every session, with the commission to answer with their eyes, their ears, their hands or thought to the reading circle, with a material that can be printed on paper. The invited artist participates on the same conditions as other participants; as spectator/listener/witness or as reader/dancer. The document that the artist creates will be published at the following Sunday Circle. Zoë Poluch is invited to document the second reading cirlce.
Ellen Söderhult is based in Stockholm and works with dance and choreography in multiple ways. She has a BA degree in Circus from 2010 and, in June 2015, also received a BA degree in Contemporary dance, both from DOCH in Stockholm. Ellen initiates and organises her own projects and participate in others. Together with Alice Chauchat and Eleanor Bauer she is co-directing the initiative Nobody’s Business doing Nobody’s Dance (2015/2016) It is a project for local and international exchange of dances, practices and methods, inspired by open source. Ellen collaborated with with Mandi Tiukkanen on the piece THIS IS GRAND that premiered at Ateneum in Helsinki. Other projects she has initiated focus on the importance of collective, delegated and distributed making.
These days, Zoë Poluch wonders how and what a local practice can be, compelling her to decipher what ‘local’ and ‘practice’ really want. The practice at stake is choreography, the field in which she completed a master’s degree at DOCH, Stockholm in 2012. Zoë has not developed one distinct choreographic interest or signature, but instead experiments with the different shapes of writing, dancing, organizing symposia, performing, collaborating and choreographing. This work is currently attracted to challenging various modes of co-existence – more specifically in the shape of a site-specific project located in a 9-story building in a Stockholm suburb, which is being done in the context of the post-Masters course “Critical Habitats” at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm.
A full evening with three works by choreographer Malin Elgán
5 june 17.00 – 19.30 (incl intermission)
A unique opportunity to take part of a series of works by Malin Elgán, which span over a longer time period (2009 – 2015) and takes a greater grip on her artistic work. The evening includes the performance “Definitions and Facts”, the audio work “Talk a bit, then we’ll check” and the film “Storyboard”, and also a talk with Elgán.
“Definitions and Facts”, which is also Elgán’s latest work, is a dance performance based on previous research material and the temporal aspects of dance. “Definitions and Facts” deals with the relationship or non-relationship between choreography and documentation, and how that relationship affects perception. Through its two dancers, Polina Akhmetzyanova and Pär Andersson, and their steps “Definitions and Facts” explores dance’s visibility and its relation to its surroundings.
Choreography: Malin Elgán | Dancers: Polina Akhmetzyanova and Pär Andersson | Sound: Sophie Helsing | Costume: Cornelia Blom | With support from The Swedish Arts Council and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee | Thanks to Ccap
The work on “Definitions and Facts” started in 2013, when Elgán had an artistic residency in New York at the dance organization Movement Research. The process continued in Stockholm 2014 and the finished work premiered in the exhibition “After Babel” at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in the summer of 2015. Recently “Definitions and facts” was shown at the art fair “Poppositions 2016” in Brussels.
Elgán’s “Talk a bit, then we’ll check” is a voice choreography, for the evening presented in a loudspeaker version. The dancers Sanna Blennow, Rebecca Chentinell, Ludde Hagberg, Love Källman and Nathalie Nordquist are involved in reading and reproducing texts that revolve around artistic work and its relationship to time.
“Talk a bit, then we’ll check” is a piece that takes off from choreography and its crucial work with time, its rearrangement of time period. Artistic work is seen substantially as a question of lifetime, working hours.
The text material is taken from the Russian (Polish-born) dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky’s, the American choreographer Yvonne Rainer’s and the Swedish pianist Love Derwinger’s texts and from Elgán’s conversations with the musicians Love Derwinger, Ann-Sofi Klingberg, Annette Mannheimer, Patrik Swedrup and Daniel Söderberg.
Choreography: Malin Elgán | Dancers: Sanna Blennow, Rebecca Chentinell, Ludde Hagberg, Love Källman and Zoë Poluch (English version) | Editing: Malin Elgán and Daniel Söderberg (English version) | Music: Daniel Söderberg | Production: Malin Elgán in collaboration with EMS (The Electronic Music Studio) and Swedish Radio SRc | With support from The Swedish Arts Council
In 2012 Elgán was invited by Swedish Radio’s alternative channel and web magazine SRc to make the audio work “Talk a bit, then we’ll check” to their finissage at Bonniers Konsthall same year. The work was performed as a live version and at the same time broadcasted on Swedish Radio. “Talk a bit, then we’ll check” has also played at Dansens Hus in Stockholm during the festival “Dance <3 Stockholm” in 2013.
”Storyboard” is a film by Elgán where she edited the film material from the groundwork with her dance performance ”Form said: do”. ”Storyboard” follows the choreographic concept from ”Form said: do” and consists of clips from a wide range of feature films and documentaries, which served as models for the dancers (Tove Salmgren and Henrik Vikman) and their movements in the performance. ”Storyboard” is a movie that bypasses the idea of the recording moment as film process’s actually starting point, which makes the idea of originality insignificant.
Participants ”Storyboard” | Director: Malin Elgán | Editing: Malin Elgán and Tove Salmgren | Editing Consultation: Örjan Markusson | Sound: Daniel Söderberg | Documentation and participants ”Form said: do” | Choreography: Malin Elgán | Dancers: Tove Salmgren and Henrik Vikman | Costume: Bella Rune | Sound: Daniel Söderberg | Light: Tobias Hagström-Ståhl | Photo: Jonas Lind | With support from The Swedish Arts Council, Culture of the Future and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee | Thanks to Jennie Lindström
“Storyboard” premiered in 2009 at Moderna Museet’s “Studion”; a new scene at the museum for experimental activities, with a mix of video, performance, dance, music and digital media. “Storyboard” was also shown during the festival “Perfect Wedding” arranged by Tanzfabrik in Berlin in 2010.
Biography
Malin Elgán’s artistic work contains both a specific and diverse and all the while expanded choreographic practice. Her works consists of different media, subjects, movements and shapes; such as the radio program “Talk a bit, then we’ll check” (2012), wooden objects and orchestras’ movements in “The wood piece” (2011), or nature documentaries and folk dances in “Storyboard” (2009) and “Form said: do” (2007). Elgán does not allow dance to be confined to certain movements and places, but takes it instead of their usual context to enable new meanings.
Elgán is based in Stockholm and is active in Sweden and internationally. In 2013, her choreographic work was awarded the Birgit Cullberg grant. She has also been the guest editor for a special edition of the art magazine “Paletten”, which was thus temporarily renamed “Baletten”. She began her career as an assistant to the multifaceted artist Jan Fabre in Belgium in 2002. Most recently, her latest dance performance “Definitions and facts” was presented during the exhibition “After Babel” at Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2015.
