exChange Perspectives
Examining the prevailing norms that affect dance as an art form
March 27–28, 2015
WELCOME
Content
p.5 Program 27 March | p.11 Program 28 March
p.15 Presentation of lecturers and workshop leaders
p.21 exChange Moçambique – Sweden | p.23 Info
exChange Perspectives
Whose body should adapt to what within the dance
field today? How can we challenge the norms that limit
diversity and variety? Are we ready to reach beyond
the attitudes and descriptions that include some on
stage and differentiate and exclude others?
exChange Perspectives is a two-day exchange of knowledge
examining the prevailing norms that affect dance as an art
form in Sweden and internationally. Through lectures, talks,
workshops, performances, and a party, we hope to inspire
and facilitate discussions about dance that focus on diversity
of form, cultural histories, and functionality of bodies within
the context of inclusion and exclusion.
Claire Cunningham, Mat glencoe
Photograph: Sven Hagolani
exChange Perspectives is arranged by Dansens Hus in Stockholm and DOCH School of Dance and Circus/Stockholm University of the Arts, in collaboration with CulturArte in Maputo
and Skånes Dansteater, with support from Culture Foundation
of the Swedish Postcode Lottery and the Swedish Institute.
5
march 27
at DOCH School of Dance and Circus
09.30–10.00
Morning Coffee
in the canteen at DOCH
10.00–10.15
Opening
Introductory speech by Annelie
Gardell, Artistic Director of Dansens
Hus and Petra Frank, Deputy ViceChancellor of DOCH. Presentation
by Katja Seitajoki, Project Manager
for exChange Perspectives and
exChange Moçambique - Sweden.
10.15–11.15
Claire Cunningham
and Luke Pell
in Conversation
Left: Luke Pell, Weathered
Photograph: Luke Pell
Above: DOCH
Photograph: Håkan Larsson
Performer and choreographer
Claire Cunningham, and maker and
curator Luke Pell, have a candid
conversation about what it means to
be making work as a disabled artist
today. Taking Cunningham’s diverse
and evolving practice as a starting
point, they explore the implications
of transformations in the body, cultural policy, and the spaces in which
we create and encounter dance
performance in the 21st century.
11.30–12.30
Renita Sörensdotter
A norm-critical perspective
of variation in ability
Which bodies confidently enter a
room, are welcomed, assume their
place and move about with distinct
self- assurance depend on society’s
power structure. Standards and
norms can close and open doors.
What is considered normal and
abnormal in society is more about
beliefs, ideas, and expectations than
actual bodies. In order to achieve
diversity and include a variety of
bodies and abilities, we need to
rethink and challenge ourselves. In
other words, we need to open closed
doors by challenging our norms.
To help, we can look to the Crip Theory, which makes visible the power
Day One: Mar ch 27
structure in society that preserves
the “fully mobile” body domination
and even gives young and healthy
bodies a privileged position. Crip
theory is inspired by other normcritical theories, like whiteness
studies and queer theory. It uses the
concepts of performativity and staging- two terms that can be applied
beyond the reaches of the stage.
12.30–13.30
Lunch and lunchbeat
with DJ Iki Gonzales Magnusson
The new office trend that we also
want to try! An hour of intense
group dancing that’s suitable for everyone. Come dance and add an hour
of euphoria to your workday! Lunch
is served in the canteen at DOCH.
13.30–14.30
Workshop
with Paloma Madrid
Between
13.30–14.30,
you can choose
between several
simultaneous
workshops:
In the studio, Madrid uses a method
called The dancer in resistance.
The method is a practice of dialogue
and discussion for dancers and
non-dancers. The possibility to raise
questions of class, power relations,
race, ethnicity, gender, femininity
and sexuality through the practice of
movements is offered. The questions
relate first and foremost to making
oneself aware of who we are in relation to the topics and then providing
6
a sense of how structures in society
work, that is, in relation to our dif
ferent life experiences. Bring pencil
and paper or a computer and soft
clothes.
13.30–14.30
Workshop
with Iki Gonzales Magnusson
“Operating on Wheels”
A workshop where we dance and
move with or without wheels. Try
what it’s like to receive dance in
structions in a wheel chair.
13.30–14.30
Presentation
of Dialog at Skånes Dansteater:
Examples, experiences, and lessons learned.
Tanja Mangalanayagam, project
manager for Dialog at Skånes
Dansteater, Melody Putu, choreog
rapher/ dance teacher, and Caroline
Bowditch, choreographer and stage
artist, share their experiences and
examples of work in conversation
with participants. Skånes Dans
teater has worked actively for many
years to broaden the notion of who
claims the stage, as well as who
the audience is. Through Dialog’s
activities, which aim to increase
participation and accessibility of
dance, a wide range of activities and
initiatives for a variety of groups is
offered.
7
13.30–14.30
Workshop
with Caroline Hammar – Dance Pedagogy
including the perspective of the visually
impaired.
Dance is often very visual, in terms
of how we teach dance, communicate dance, and participate in dance.
To make dance accessible to those
who have poor vision or cannot
see, this workshop aims to foster
understanding and arouse curiosity regarding how we work with
and communicate dance, with or
without limited visual stimuli. Hammar, who is holding this workshop
is a professional dancer herself and
has a severe visual impairment.
Her workshop presents the opportunity to explore different ways to
work with dance in order to make
it accessible to more people and is
aimed specifically at people who are
interested in pedagogy. 13.30–15.30
Workshop
with Claire Cunningham:
“Permission to Speak…”
Please note that this workshop lasts for 2 hours
Cunningham introduces participants to techniques that are formative in her performance practice,
as well as when collaborating with
other dancers and bodies. By building methods of communication
and trust, she explores the use of
Day One: Mar ch 27
language and voice to reveal our
relationships to our bodies and
dance vocabulary.
This workshop is for individuals
with some established dance and/or
physical practice.
14.45–15.45
A Lecture Performance
with Clara Lee Lundberg:
“It’s black, it’s white, yeah yeah yeah…”
In this Lecture Performance, Clara
Lee Lundberg reports on her current masters project “ The Colonial
Heritage within the expanded dance
field”, which is based on the hypothesis that there is a strong colonial
legacy within body and movement
in several dance fields in Sweden today. She maintains that racism and
prejudice are upheld through racial
ideas of white and non-white bodies’
capacity and ability of expression.
Her goal is to make the colonial
heritage visible in the dance field
and work against racism.
15.45–16.15
Coffee break / Jilda Hallin
During the coffee break, DOCH-student Jilda Hallin together with Karin
Delén present their artistic work with
an integrated perspective on dance
and disability.
Day One: Mar ch 27
16.15–16.30
Victoria Andersson Garcia
and Nelly Harrysson
Students at DOCH present their thoughts on
norm-critical perspectives on dance as future
highschool teachers.
If dance is going to become more
inclusive, a standard critical pedagogy in dance education is required.
Children and young people should
feel included and welcome to
express themselves through dance,
regardless of body and background.
Andersson Garcia and Harrysson
give examples for why and how
norm criticism can be integrated in
dance education.
16.30–17.30
A Conversation
with Caroline Hammar, Luke Pell, Christine
Bylund and Iki Gonzales Magnusson.
How do we rid of the normative
body in dance as we constantly
relate to it and stage performances?
Why do we not expand dance opportunities so that they include and
create room for diversity instead?
This is a conversation about the
advantages and disadvantages of
concepts like integrated dance company and disability.
When are these concepts necessary to create awareness about the
fact that we are a variety of people
8
with different needs, and when do
these concepts about diversity within dance expression and aesthetics
actually exclude?
19.00–20.30
Performance: Rayahzone
by Ali and Hèdi Thabet at Dansens Hus.
“Rayah” means journey in Arabic,
and this is an exciting journey where
tenderness, authenticity and the joy
of being together is in focus. With
acrobatics, dance and song, Rayahzone is a performance filled with
reflection, poetry, and humanity.
In a Tunisian courtyard worn by
time, three dancers and five singers meet. The musicians’ songs and
voices join the dance and acrobatics
and open the door to the spiritual
and the divine.
20.30–23.00
Party
Dj Aïcha and Tatiana Rucinska
Former co-producer of the
acclaimed radio show Klingan
and SR P2’s online global jukebox
SR Världen, Dj Aïcha, plays a
contemporary mix of music from
the crossed paths of Europe and
Northern Africa.
Luke Pell, The Long Time. Photograph: Kitty Fedorec
11
march 28
at Dansens Hus, small stage
9.30–10.00
Morning Coffee
in the foyer
10.00–10.15
Welcome
Petra Frank, Vice President at
DOCH, and Annelie Gardell, Artistic
Director at Dansens Hus welcome
everyone. Presentation by Katja
Seitajoki, Project Manager for exChange Perspectives and exChange
Moçambique- Sweden.
10.15–11.15
Caroline Bowditch
“The Power of the Gaze”
“When a disabled dancer takes the
stage, he or she stakes claim to a
radical space— an unruly location
where disparate assumptions about
representation, subjectivity, and
visual pleasure collide with one
another.” Ann Cooper Allbright
Right: Skånes Dansteater, Dialog
Photograph: David Thibel
This page: Riksteaterns Tyst Teater, Vibragera
Photograph: Håkan Larsson
Loaded with centuries of societal
assumptions and expectations,
or lack there of, this presentation
will explore the weight, power, and
potential of an audience’s gaze,
disabled and non-disabled, on the
performing disabled body. 11.30–12.30
Josette Bushell-Mingo
and Tyst Teater Riksteatern
The visual and sensory experience
of movement and dance when deaf
or blind. What is the audience’s
experience? What thought processes develop? What challenges
are confronted in process, and what
physical identities merge or separate on stage?
Reflections and observations
by Josette Bushell-Mingo, artistic director for Riksteaterns Tyst
Teater, the Swedish sign-language
theatre currently in preparation for
their dance production spring 2016.
Sharing reflections and discussing
processes related to physical expression, she’ll ask what is the norm
in aesthetic inclusion, and ethnic,
physical exclusion?
Day TWO: Mar ch 28
12.30–13.30
Lunch
12
14.50–15.15
Coffee break
13.30–13.50
Performance: Kurvatur
15.15–16.15
Panaibra Gabriel Canda
Danskompaniet Spinn
“The Art of (IN)DEPENDENCE”
Two dancers challenge the point of
mutual balance. Curves, lines, arcs,
distance and meeting, everything
meets in a meandering asymmetric
duet with Emilia Wärff and Malin
Kaveryd. Dance Company Spinn
continues to develop the integrated
dance, putting movement and body
in focus in a new work for new spaces. Kurvatur was created by dancers
Emilia Wärff and Malin Kaveryd.
Since snatching independence from
Portugal in 1975, Mozambique has
been a land of civil war and social
and political rifts, but its inflexible communist model is gradually
making way for a fragile democracy.
The Art of (In) dependence attempts
to answer questions such as how to
stimulate creative freedom within
such limitations.
The body of the project aims to
integrate in dance the marginalized
body or victim of war and social
trauma. This project began as a
creative dance training program for
performers with or without physical
disabilities where dancers’ bodies
had retained traces of the physical
and mental wounds caused by the
military conflicts in their homeland. The (in) dependence program
transforms the way we look at the
body, seeks to see beauty in strangeness, and points out forms where
this appears to be absent.
13.50–14.50
André Lepecki
André Lepecki, Professor in Concept
and Composition at Stockholm’s
University of the Arts, will give a
talk on the topic; ‘The post-colony is
here; the post-colony is not here.
Or: race and the unconscious of
movement’. 13
Day two: Mar ch 28
16.30–17.30
Open discussion
What do we do now? How do we
take the ideas further? How do we
create strategies and engage people
in the concept of change to broaden
dance opportunities for diversity
and variation?
tion, poetry, and humanity.
In a Tunisian courtyard worn by
time, three dancers and five singers meet. The musicians’ songs and
voices join the dance and acrobatics
and open the door to the spiritual
and the divine.
19.00–20.30
Performance: Rayahzone
by Ali and Hèdi Thabet at Dansens Hus.
“Rayah” means journey in Arabic,
and this is an exciting journey where
tenderness, authenticity and the joy
of being together is in focus. With acrobatics, dance and song, Rayahzone
is a performance filled with reflec-
Left: Panaibra, Point of intersection
Photograph: Peter R. Fiebig
This page: Claire Cunningham, Mat dream
Photograph: Sven Hagolani
15
PRESENTATION
of the lecturers and workshop leaders.
Read more on www.dansenshus.se/en/exchange-perspectives
Caroline Bowditch
Above: Caroline Hammar
photo: Private
Below: DOCH
photographer: Håkan Larsson
Performance artist and
choreographer Caroline Bowditch
describes herself as a performer,
maker, teacher, speaker and mosquito — buzzing in the ears of the
arts industry in the UK and further
afield. For several years she held
the role as Dance Agent for Change
at the Scottish Dance Theatre. She
is Associate Artist at Dance 4 in
Nottingham, which supported her
award-winning production Falling
in love with Frida. More than that,
she is also an artistic consultant
with Skånes Dansteater, Dundee
Rep Theatre and British Council, as
well as Visiting Professor at Coventry University.
www.carolinebowditch.com
Christine Bylund
Active as a writer, performance
artist, club organizer, lecturer and
method developer. At present, she
is collaborating with the Swedish
Independent Living movement
and organization STIL. Among
other projects, she’ll participate
in the feminist anthology Utvägar
at Ordfront publishers and will be
developing norm-critical method
material with functionality as the
outlook.
Panaibra Gabriel Canda & CulturArte
The work of award-winning dancer
and choreographer Panaibra Gabriel
Canda has been presented in Africa,
Europe, USA and Latin America. In
1998, he created CulturArte, which
is not just a dance company but also
a development centre for performing arts. The centre has enabled
the emergence of a contemporary
dance scene in Maputo, Mozambique, and of dancers that are, today,
internationally recognized. In 2007,
Panaibra launched the (IN) DEPENDENCE project, a training and
mentoring project integrating abled
and disabled people.
Claire Cunningham
Claire Cunningham is a performer
and creator of multi-disciplinary
performance based in Glasgow. Her
work is often rooted in the study and
use or misuse of her crutches, the
exploration of the potential of her
specific physicality with a conscious
rejection of traditional dance
Presentation
techniques (developed for nondisabled bodies), and the attempt to
move with the pretence of a body or
aesthetic other than her own. Her
current works are Give me a reason
to live (2014) and Guide Gods (2014).
www.clairecunningham.co.uk
Danskompaniet Spinn
With inspiration from Candoco
Dance Company in UK, Danskompaniet Spinn was founded in 2010 by
artistic director Veera Suvalo Grimberg. It is Sweden’s first integrated
dance company with professional
dancers with or without disabilities.
They have created performances,
workshops, seminars and talks. In
2014, the youth company of Spinn
was also founded.
www.danskompanietspinn.se
DOCH Photographer: Håkan Larsson
Dialog at Skånes Dansteater
The purpose of Skånes Dansteater’s
Project Dialogue is to increase
participation and accessibility
of dance, through a wide array of
activities and initiatives for a variety
of groups. In 2012, Dialog arranged
Dance Funk – a festival of dance and
disability. The aim was to initiate a
national debate on how to reform
16
and develop dance as an art form so
that diversity of bodies are seen on
the stage. Dialog Project manager:
Tanja Mangalanayagam, Choreographer/ Dance teacher: Melody
Putu, Artistic consultant: Caroline
Bowditch.
www.skanesdansteater.se
Caroline Hammar
Caroline Hammar was trained
in modern dancing at the Royal
Swedish Ballet School. In addition
to her own dance projects, she has
worked with choreographers such
as Paloma Madrid and Christina
Tingskog. She also teaches dance
and yoga to both people with and
without disabilities. Hammar has a
severe visual impairment and has
been involved in the National Association for the Visually Impaired.
She lectures in diversity, accessibility, and participation – often for
new and practicing teachers.
Jilda Hallin
Jilda Hallin is a student at DOCH.
Together with her research partner Karin Delén, she has focused
her exam work on physical contact
between dancers with different
17
abilities. She has also questioned the
language and its effect on our
behavior. Apart from studying she is
also a dancer and co-creator in the
integrated ensemble dance: Work;
an on-going project within the
cultural organization Share Music
Sweden.
Victoria Andersson Garcia
& Nelly Harrysson
Victoria Andersson Garcia and Nelly
Harrysson are studying teacher education at DOCH. Garcia Andersson
has studied at the Balettakademien
in Umeå and Harrysson has studied
at Iwanson International School of
Contemporary Dance in Munich.
Both have also worked as dance
teachers and dancers.
André Lepecki
André Lepecki is Professor in Concept and Composition at Stockholm’s University of the Arts and
Associate Professor in Performance
Studies at New York University.
He is also a curator and a writer.
His main areas of research are
performance studies, choreography
and dramaturgy. He has published
widely and edited several anthologies, like Dance (2012), and is author
of the book Exhausting Dance: performance and the politics of movement (2006).
Clara Lee Lundberg
Clara Lee Lundberg is a dancer, cho-
Presentation
reographer, activist and multidisciplinary artist; currently completing
the Masterprogram NPP at DOCH.
Always operating at the breaking
point between activism, theory and
artistic practices, she is particularly
interested in analyses of socio-political relations, neo-colonial structures, gender and queer theories,
aesthetic norms and philosophy. She
has presented a number of her own
works at various theatres, galleries
and festivals.
Paloma Madrid
Paloma Madrid is a freelance choreographer, performer, dancer and
dance educator. As an active and
emerging artist, she has begun to
describe herself as a “political body
investigator”. Madrid is a pioneer
who started off with the use of community dance in Sweden. Madrid´s
work is always in search of possible
ways for the mind to re-think dance
and choreography.
www.palomamadrid.me
Iki Gonzalez Magnusson,
Utopia and c.off
Iki Gonzalez Magnusson is a dancer
and choreographer, but also an
actor, DJ and club organizer. She
lectures about mobility, access
and availability, and is producer
at the non-profit organization
Utopia, working actively to create a culture where everyone has
a place. In Kroppsfunktion (Body
18
Presentation
functionality), a collaboration with
c.off, the vision is to expand the
boundaries and expectations for the
types of bodies and movements that
appear on the cultural scene in Sweden. www.utopias.se and www.coff.
se/#/projects/kroppsfunktion
Josette Bushell-Mingo
and Tyst Teater
Josette Bushell-Mingo is artistic
director for Riksteaterns Tyst
Teater; producing performances in
sign language. She is chairman for
Cinem-Africa and TRYCK; an association for cultural workers of African origin. She is an award-winning
freelance director who lectures and
leads diversity work, both nationally
and internationally.
www.tystteater.riksteatern.se
Luke Pell
Luke Pell is an independent artist
who works in and between spaces of
dance, theatre and live art. His work
has been presented throughout the
UK and internationally. Maker,
curator and questioner; he collaborates with other artists and
organizations imagining alternative
contexts for performance,
participation and discourse.
He is an Associate Artist with Candoco Dance Company, Dance Digital
and Fevered Sleep.
www.lukepell.org
Renita Sörensdotter
Renita Sörensdotter has a PhD in Social Anthropology and is a researcher
and lecturer in gender studies, most
recently at the Centre for Gender
Research at Uppsala University. Her
research and teaching is focused on
queer and intersectional perspectives of the body, sexuality and everyday life. Norm-critical pedagogy
has also provided a field for research,
as seen in the method studies of In
the Eye of Norms (2008). In recent
years, Sörensdotter has primarily
written about sexual health.
Left: Luke Pell, Weathered
Photograph: Luke Pell
This page: Luke Pell, Waits
Photograph: Manuel Vason
21
exChange
Moçambique
–
Sweden
exChange Perspectives is one part of the artistic exchange
project exChange Moçambique – Sweden where choreographers and dancers from both countries work with an integrated perspective on body and choreography. The exchange
project concludes with the presentation of two performances
in the autumn of 2015 by choreographers from Moçambique
and Sweden. The initiative will be conducted in both countries.
exChange Moçambique – Sweden is arranged by Dansens Hus
in Stockholm and CulturArte in Maputo, in collaboration with
DOCH School of Dance and Circus/Stockholm University of
Fine Arts and Skånes Dansteater, with support from Culture
Foundation of the Swedish Postcode Lottery and the Swedish
Institute.
Panaibra, No Limits. Photograph: Michael Bause
For more information: www.dansenshus.se
Ali och Hèdi Thabet, Rayahzone. Photograph: Renaud De Lage
23
info
Register
You can choose if you would like to
attend exChange Perspectives one or
two days. The registration fee for each
day is SEK 150 and includes: Light
lunch, mid session refreshment breaks
and reception friday 27th. In order to
supply lunch we need your registration
no later than March 23rd.
Participants attending exChange
Perspective are offered a special rate
for the performance Rayahzone at
Dansens Hus 27 & 28 of March and
pays only SEK 50. Please note that
this ticket is to be booked separately.
Register: dansenshus.se/en/exchangeperspectives
Language
English
Interpreting services
exChange Perspectives provides
sign language interpreters translating
between spoken English and Swedish
sign language.
Assisting Listening Systems
exChange Perspectives is equipped
with Assistive Listening Systems.
Wheelchairs
Register for guests in wheelchair
through the box office at Dansens
Hus. [email protected]
or 08-508 990 90
Adress
Dansens Hus
Barnhusgatan 14
111 24 Stockholm
DOCH School of Dance and Circus
Brinellvägen 58
104 50 Stockholm
exChange Perspectives is arranged by
Dansens Hus in Stockholm and DOCH
School of Dance and Circus / Stockholm
University of the Arts, in collaboration
with CulturArte in Maputo and Skånes
Dansteater, with support from Culture
Foundation of the Swedish Postcode
Lottery and the Swedish Institute.
Photography: Sven Hagolani,
Håkan Larsson, Kitty Fedorec,
David Thibel, Peter R. Fiebig,
Manuel Vason, Michael Bause,
Renaud De Lage
Thanks to: Rebecca Vinthagen
and Tanja Mangalanayagam
Graphic Design: Spektra
www.dansenshus.se/exchange-perspectives
Lectures, talks, workshops and performances
that focus on diversity of form, cultural histories
and functionality of bodies on stage.