This essay is one part of my Bachelor's degree project, the other part being the work LOOPAR that was premiered in January of 2021 at Stockholm University of the Arts. The text expands and articulates the thinking processes and conversations in relation to the work. The aim of the text is to acknowledge and reflect the thoughts around the work with other people, dancers, and thinkers, and to scrutinize the main questions of the work: How can we think of repetition in relation to subject formation? And how does repetition and looping construct and affect world making? The essay begins by introducing the main concepts of the work such as 'performativity’, ’subject’, ‘storytelling’, ‘branding’, ‘repetition’ and ‘looping’. In the text, loops can be seen as actions, habits, repeated thinking processes, understandings of norms or different kinds of interactions, which change and transform our perception and understanding constantly about ourselves and the world we live in through persistent repetition. The essay observes how our experiences of ourselves and the world are affected by multiple contexts and felt-sensed experiences and interactions. It further explores the potentialities to decentralize the focus of the individualistic point of views of world making and it moves towards relational ways of thinking. The main references and conversation partners to many of the topics discussed in the essay are Argentine feminist philosopher and activist María Lugones, American professor of Feminist studies, Philosophy and History of Consciousness with a Ph.D. in Physics Karen Barad, and American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler. Further the essay reflects the work and methods used in praxis in relation to the thinking processes introduced in the text. At the end the essay asks the two following questions: How we can practice active consciousness and responsibility towards a subject’s positionality and interactions in dancing? And how can dancing together and alone be understood as entangled and overlapped? 

The article is based on a lecture performance titled “Archipelagic Rehearsals – Abstract as Score” that was presented at the RGS-IBG conference, held jointly by the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of British Geographers, in Cardiff in 2018. The presentation was an exploration of a possibility to practice, in Édouard Glissant’s terms, “archipelagic thinking” by presenting a lecture with interaction from the audience, as a lecture performance. That “archipelagic experiment” is continued in the article through an attempt to format the performance as an academic text. In turn, the text is an attempt to create new imaginaries and storytelling with Spanish slugs through participatory artistic experimental practice. The writing as artistic practice offers the potential for becoming and as such it is unpredictable in its outcome. The article starts with the author’s framing of Glissant’s poetics and attempts a feminist and more-than-human approach to present the event – the performance of the lecture and the story of the slug in footnotes that were an integral part of the lecture.

The article is based on a lecture performance titled “Archipelagic Rehearsals – Abstract as Score” that was presented at the RGS-IBG conference, held jointly by the Royal Geographical Society and the Institute of British Geographers, in Cardiff in 2018. The presentation was an exploration of a possibility to practice, in Édouard Glissant’s terms, “archipelagic thinking” by presenting a lecture with interaction from the audience, as a lecture performance. That “archipelagic experiment” is continued in the article through an attempt to format the performance as an academic text. In turn, the text is an attempt to create new imaginaries and storytelling with Spanish slugs through participatory artistic experimental practice. The writing as artistic practice offers the potential for becoming and as such it is unpredictable in its outcome. The article starts with the author’s framing of Glissant’s poetics and attempts a feminist and more-than-human approach to present the event – the performance of the lecture and the story of the slug in footnotes that were an integral part of the lecture.

Our topic concerns how to conduct practice-based research between and within three aesthetic disciplines: sculptor, professional taster, and performative artist. We continue to work with the material and experiences developed during the 3-year VR-funded HAPTICA research project. Our plan is to actualise a few practical situations that show how we gained both a deeper aesthetic knowledge within our own artistic disciplines and grew more sensitive and knowledgeable about the challenges faced in the other disciplines. The overall topic has been to expand the field of aesthetics by including the proximity senses: tactile, haptic, smell, taste, and movement by conducting artistic research in haptic.

Our topic concerns how to conduct practice-based research between and within three aesthetic disciplines: sculptor, professional taster, and performative artist. We continue to work with the material and experiences developed during the 3-year VR-funded HAPTICA research project. Our plan is to actualise a few practical situations that show how we gained both a deeper aesthetic knowledge within our own artistic disciplines and grew more sensitive and knowledgeable about the challenges faced in the other disciplines. The overall topic has been to expand the field of aesthetics by including the proximity senses: tactile, haptic, smell, taste, and movement by conducting artistic research in haptic.

Within the frame of an MA, we know from the start that there will be a specific ending; we call it final project, degree project or final presentation and this essay is meant to accompany the journey of the degree project.

In my case, I want to mention and reflect upon that for me the MA has been a framework for developing and experiencing different types of projects. So not only the project of presenting work at the end of the final semester but long term projects with a broader sense of choreography. Projects that includes social relations and are community based like P0$$€ dance and reading group a weekly extra-scholarly dance and reading group that shares texts and dance material, in a spontaneous and laid-back way, hosted by a different practitioner each time. The invitation from END FEST where I proposed to do a P0$$€ session in a public swimming pool. The future project of proposing slime workshops at cultural centers and youth-clubs, which comes from the experience and the research on the work that will be presented as the degree project called FIEBRE.

These projects are important for me to highlight because the way I work with choreography is not only about creating final products.

Det finns olika sätt att skapa ett filmmanus – skriva fritt från en spontan idé, eller mer planerat med ett bestämt slut i åtanke. Jag och tre andra manusförfattare skriver varsitt kortfilmsmanus med respektive metod. Jag intervjuar dem efteråt och för egen processdagbok, och jämför de olika manusen: vad har de olika metoderna för olika förlopp, och hur kan dessa skillnader förklaras?

Utifrån en kritisk diskussion av olika manusmanualer, undersöker jag dessa prospektiva kontra retrospektiva skrivpraktiker med fokus dels på process och dels på resultat. Resultaten som kan användas både i manusförfattande samt i skrivundervisning.

Nonverbal communication in dance teaching - How do students experience and interpret the nonverbal communication of a dance pedagogue?

The purpose of this thesis is to further the knowledge about how a dance pedagogue's nonverbal communication could be interpreted by dance students. The thesis focuses on four semiotic resources; placement in the room, facial expression, usage of voice, and body language.

A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. A practical workshop was executed where demonstrations of various ways in using nonverbal communication within a dance class context was shown. A questionnaire was based upon these demonstrations. A group interview was conducted. In the process of making the content of the demonstrations, video filming was used. The theoretical framework is based on theories of social semiotics and multimodality.

The results show that small details in the dance pedagogue's usage of nonverbal communication have great influence on students' experiences of the presence of a dance pedagogue, the clarity of the instructions from the dance pedagogue, and the power dynamics between dance pedagogue and student. The study shows that these components are crucial for students' comprehensions of the content of a dance class and their experiences of the social climate of the classroom. The study advocates the importance of consiousness among dance pedagogues about their usage of nonverbal communication in teaching.

Hela året på svarta speglar har varit en lång resa. En lång resa som tog mig vidare och djupare inåt mot min kärna. Det är något jag längtat efter och velat komma till, men inte vetat hur jag skulle ta mig till själv, på den konstnärliga arenan. Svarta speglar lämnar avtryck i mig.  För mig är vetskapen om att denna utbildning finns ett landmärke i sig. Att det finns en holistisk utbildning där både kropp och själ får vara med och där misslyckandet är en gåva och där undersökandet tas till sin spets varje dag.

För mig har det här året känts som en gåva. En gåva jag inte trodde fanns. Svarta speglar innehåller så många djup och öppningar och som visat sig tydligt under tid. För mig har utbildningen handlat om att våga öppna sig och möta sig själv som människa och konstnär.

Det finns många teman som kommer igen i min underökning kring mitt uttryck och konstnärlighet. Ett tema är skam. Skammen dyker upp i många former, både personligt, i konsten och kring konsten. Att skapa är ett personligt uttryck och de strukturer vi bär på följer med oss in i arbetet. Jag har skapat starka föreställningar men samtidigt skämts över mig själv, vilket har lett till att jag hållit mig själv tillbaka. Jag har använt mig av en del av mig men inte hela. Min resa fortsätter mot att använda hela mig. Det är viktigt för mig att reflektera och förstå mig själv, vart jag kommer ifrån och vem jag är. Det är en del av min drivkraft att fundera, läsa och samtala kring existentiella frågor. Min förståelse för mig skapar djupare förståelse för andra. Och att jag som regissör vill använda min kropp, kasta mig in i leken med lust, känns viktigt.

”Det djupa samband som finns mellan psykiskt liv och uttrycksfull kroppsrörelse är grunden till varje direkt förståelse av andra människors tillstånd”. (Dropsy, 1987, s. 19)

Egen erfarenhet och förståelse av andra hänger ihop. Jag behöver vara i min kropp för att kunna vara grundad och använda mig av hela mitt instrument, eftersom jag jobbar fysiskt med skådespelarna och värnar om den processen. Jag påstår att det inre i mig är viktigt. Jag påstår att jag är min kropp. Jag vågar tro att kroppen leder mig rätt. Känna att jag är i min kropp med tillgång till att jag känner mig starkare, kan gå in i mitt center och behålla mig.  Jag vill tro att jag kan vara känslomässig och jobba, och att det finns utrymme för det.  Och att vi inte kan glömma bort att vi är människor med bagage och liv som skall gestalta andras liv.

Jag vill säga att jag förstår att skammens motsats är kärlek. Att ett öppet hjärta inte bär på en skuld i sig, och jag längtar efter att få njuta av arbetet och kunna återkomma till teatrar med en kärlekskänsla istället för att inte våga gå dit, för att skammen tar över. Jag vill släppa in mer kärlek. Och jag vill öppna upp för styrkan och passionen inuti. Jag har tittat in bakom rädslan för att se vem jag är där. I rädslan mötte jag de starka kvinnorna. De med kraft, passion, ilska och egen stark drivkraft framåt Kroppens historia går vid sidan om och ihop med feminismen, och all annan kamp mot förlegade strukturer som stått/står under olika typer av förtryck. Den disciplin som lagts på kroppen, med förbud och tvång, har skapat en rädsla som sitter i, omedvetet, som skapat en rädsla för det mest naturliga vi har, kroppen. Det finns många lager av strukturer som ligger på den här kroppen, som bojor, från barndomen, inre kritiker till yttre förtryck.

”Förkvävandet av friheten och tvånget till anpassning börjar inte på kontoret, i fabriken eller i partiet utan redan under livets första veckor” (Miller, 1999, s. 138)

How can Dance keep evolve and expand as an art form and at the same time, be attainable in itscontent to general audience?There are many ways to answer this question.I attempt answering this unsolvable question in one way through my practical presentation bychoosing to make a dance piece in which tents are the dancers\ In which tents are dancing.As it usually happens in artistic processes, the questions and problems reshape themselvesaround the artistic material that is developed along the way.In this case another question aroused in the research process: How can a tent dance?I see these two questions as the two edges of my researchprocess spectrum.The first question addresses a large-scale problem in relationto Dance as an art form in our society and the second one triesto be the concrete manifestation of the first through practice.Another way to observe these two questions is to see the firstquestion as a theory-based question, taking underconsideration the time, place and filed in which it is being questioned. The second question canbe seen as a practice-based question which emerges from the physical explorations of the artisticprocess.In this essay I will attempt to bring these two questions closer together through sharing andanalyzing the creation process in the field and context in which I amacting\working\creating\choreographing\dancing. 

Vad är det du undersöker och varför? Vi vill undersöka gränslandet mellan det repeterade och det spontana uttrycket i operasångarens konst. Hur kan musikalisk improvisation ge energier och kreativa impulser till sångare och vad kräver det av utövaren? Finns det något av väsentlig kvalitet för det musikdramatiska uttrycket som sångaren kan bidra med om textens och musikens bundna form upplöses genom fri improvisation av sångaren? Det vi söker är nycklar till sångarens kreativitet, för att ta dem med till vår undervisning. Vad kommer vi att få ta del av under din presentation? Vi kommer att berätta om vårt arbete och visa en liten del ur vår nyskrivna laborations-opera.

Ett undersökande i hur skådespelarnas kroppar kan användas i en designprocess för att fördjupa kostymdesignen och karaktärsgestalltningen. 

Denna essä är en inventering, en sorts överblick och sammanfattning av de teman och ämnen som jag funnit särskilt intressanta utifrån det arbete jag gjort under detta läsår. Jag kommer i denna essä beskriva hur jag genom utbildningens gång arbetat med att förstå mina egna kreativa processer i olika moment som utbildningen erbjudit. Jag försöker se närmare på vilka resultat det gett och hur det påverkat mig i mitt arbete. Jag kommer göra vissa nedslag på utvalda moment som särskilt påverkat mig i mitt arbete och jag kommer lyfta olika teman som väckts genom de olika momenten. Jag försöker se närmare på nya strukturer och mönster i mitt kreativa arbete som jag fått syn på, samt den möjliga utveckling som det gett mig i mitt kreativa arbete.  

Den här uppsatsen handlar om hur några gymnasieelever som studerar dans på estetiska programmet upplever kreativitet och eget skapande. Syftet med studien var att undersöka elevernas upplevelse av kreativt skapande inom skolans ramar med fokus på kurserna Dansgestaltning 1 och Koreografi. Det som undersöktes var vilka faktorer som bidrar till att skapa en kreativ miljö och vilka som kan hindra det egna skapandet. Insamlade data bygger på kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Sammanlagt gjordes fem enskilda intervjuer med elever från årskurs två och tre på en gymnasieskola i Sverige. Dessa intervjuer transkriberades sedan och analyserades för att hitta olika teman. Temana kodades sedan i olika undergrupper som analyserades. Det som kom fram i resultatet var att eleverna upplevde skapande av dans i skolan som något positivt. När de skapande uppkom känslor som glädje, entusiasm och lugn. Det framkom även vad eleverna behövde för hjälpmedel för att kunna skapa dans. De behövde ha en förförståelse för olika danssteg, en stor lokal med speglar, musik och rätt sinnesstämning. Faktorer som kunde hindra dem var liten yta, klasskamrater, dålig självkänsla, och höga krav på sig själv. Min slutsats var att eleverna ser skapandet som något positivt och de flesta hjälpmedel de behöver finns redan i skolan. Det framkom även att faktorer som hindrar vissa elever i deras skapande kan ha en positiv effekt på andra elevers skapande. Något som också framkom var att eleverna påverkades ytterst lite av betygen.

This study examines questions about the opera singer’s learning techniques. What happens when I, as a singer, only focus on the text or only on the music in the early stages of learning new material? Through interviews with other stage performers and my own experience, I developed two extreme methods of learning, one text-based and one music-based. To test them, I learned parts of two different Händel-roles, and examined how my methods changed my work in portraying the characters. I discovered the importance of joy while learning and practising, as well as pros and cons with separating the text and music from one another in such an extended part of the process.

This thesis is based on my own experiences of dancing Halling, a type of folk dance. Halling is commonly referred to as a male or masculine dance. This has been entangled in the problems I have had with the dance, as I have felt uncomfortable performing all the movements to their full extent. Therefore, I have researched my experiences of this dance through a practical study with a focus on specific movements that I have struggled with. Combining the findings of my practical study with theories about feminism, gender and masculinity has shown me that, while my problem is complex, it is nevertheless possible to structure into two parts of my own understanding. The first part concerns the movement that make up the dance. Through my research I was able to deal with some of the problems that I had with specific movements, and this led me to the conclusion that the movements of Halling in themselves do not have to be problematic in a gendered way. The second part concerns Halling within its context, and the way that its representation and the expectations surrounding it affect me and my dancing. The study has also shown me that being a pedagogical role model is a very complex situation where it is not only important for me to be aware of the choices I make but also the person I am in the teaching situation. 

This article communicates a study on dance for people over 65 in Sweden. Earlier studies on dance for elderly people have primarily focused on treatment and wellbeing. The current study centers on the right to make oneself heard in and through contemporary dance as an artistic form of expression, regardless of age, gender, or geographical context. The specific aim of the study is to describe and analyze the experiences of women aged over 65 in a rural area, who participated in contemporary dance workshops as a form of arts learning. The workshops, which were observed and documented, constituted part of an EU-financed project, Age on stage. Participants also shared experiences through informal chats and e-mails. The material was analyzed in a narrative manner. The results show that the workshops created a safe space for dance as a dwelling place, where dance was discovered, and at the same time developed, collaboratively. The results also highlighted the importance of this type of artistic participation for elderly women in terms of developing an understanding of themselves and coping with life.

This paper will present a study concerning teachers’ assessments of dance knowledge. The aim is to explore and analyse the phenomenon of assessment of dance knowledge in Swedish upper secondary schools from a teacher’s perspective. What goals for knowledge development, and thereby assessment, appear? What value assessments could be seen? In what ways do teachers motivate their choices of assessment? A starting point for life-world phenomenology is to be adherent to the phenomenon. To be able to grasp the phenomenon material was gathered through observations of grading conversations and one teacher´s written reflections. The observations took place during dance education and separate grading conversations in the course Dance techniques 1. The method used for analysis was inspired by Spiegelberg's stages of analysis. In the analytical process the phenomenon was seen and broadened out, varied and condensed, aiming to find the essence of the phenomenon. Assessment in dance can be seen as a complex phenomenon where embodied dance knowledge constitutes the basis for what should be assessed. Two dimensions in assessment will be presented. It is necessary for the teacher and student to be in agreement about the meaning of the assessment, though the communication has implicit meanings, goals and intentions.

This presentation mediates a study that is a part of a larger study about teacher’s assessment of dance knowledge in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose of this specific part- study is to define how dance knowledge is seen and valued by teachers teaching in dance and how teachers are assessing dance knowledge based on current syllabuses. There is a need for scientific research about curriculum assessment in dance (Blumenfeld-Jones & Liang, 2007). Assessment in dance in Swedish upper secondary schools is a non-researched area and is important to increased requirement upon assessment.Theoretical and methodology frameworkThe study is based on phenomenological philosophy. A phenomenological way of thinking allows that human beings are inter-subjective linked with and within the world. According to this theory there are no distinguish between body and soul, but they form an entirety. According to Merleau-Ponty (2006) the only way to gain insight of the world is through human experience of it. A basic rule and the starting point for research within the philosophy of life-world-phenomenology is to turn towards the things themselves and to be adherent to the things.The tacit knowledge of dance can often be difficult to verbalize. To make visible the tacit knowledge of the phenomenon data is gathered in this sub-project through methods as observations that are documented using field notes, video documentation, teachers' notes and conversations with teachers about their reflections upon assessment of dance. The different methods will constitute base for the analysis of the study and create the unity of purpose an opportunity to capture different perspectives of the phenomenon. The observations are taking place in three selected schools in the course Dance technique 1.The expected findings from this research are how dance teachers use assessment of dance knowledge in their teaching in the Swedish upper secondary school. So far the study can show different ways to approach current syllabuses and how assessment is based on steering documents.

The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss assessment within dance education in Swedish upper secondary schools through teachers’ reflections. The study investigates how teachers reflect upon the range of possibilities explored and difficulties encountered in their assessment practice. In order to be able to comprehend the phenomenon of teachers’ reflections regarding their assessment practice, both written and verbal teacher reflections were gathered by means of seven interviews with four teachers, and one trilateral talk. Four teachers participated in the study. In the analytical process, the phenomenon was seen, broadened, varied, and then condensed into two themes: Conditions for assessment for learning and Making space for assessment. Both themes have aspects, which are intertwined: both include conditions for assessment as seen through various modalities, methods and tools.

The aim of the study is to illuminate a teacher‘s conceptions of quality expressed through verbal and non-verbal actions in relation to summative assessments of dance knowledge. The following research questions are considered in the study: What conceptions of quality emerge during grade conferences? In what ways do teacher’s conceptions of quality reflect knowledge hierarchies? How do the teacher’s and student’s conceptions of quality relate to each other? To grasp the phenomenon, material was gathered during observations in a Swedish upper secondary school and from the teacher’s written reflections. Individual grading conversations were observed between the teacher and ten students attending a course called Dance technique 1. In the analytical process, the phenomenon was seen, broadened out, varied, and then condensed into two themes: conceptions of quality expressed through the teacher‘s focus on abilities and conceptions of quality expressed through views on the progression of dance knowledge.

This article examines how dance knowledge is seen through syllabuses in Swedish upper secondary schools. A starting point is life-world phenomenology. A phenomenological way of thinking allows that human beings are intersubjective, linked with and within the world, which influences the view of dance knowledge and how research is elaborated. A basic rule and starting point for research within phenomenology is to turn toward the things themselves and to be adherent. Dance knowledge constitutes the phenomenon studied, as revealed in dance syllabus steering documents. Spiegelberg’s philosophical method is used as a base for phenomenological text analysis. The study is limited to syllabuses from two different curricula, labeled by The Swedish National Agency for Education as Lpf94 and Gy11. The analysis results in two images of how the essence of dance knowledge is manifested. Finally, the different constitutions are discussed and related to a life-world phenomenological view of dance knowledge.

This is me. And this is me as a dancer. This is the best costume in the world. The best light in the world, the best prop in the world.

This is the best dance step in the world.

This is me. But this is not real. This is just you looking at me dancing. You are looking at me, me looking at you looking at me looking at you looking at me (dancing). You are honored to be here. I'm honored that you came. Looking at me dancing while I'm looking at you, honored that you came to look at this dance. It's an honor for you looking at this dance, even if it's not for real. In real life this is just something you look at. But right now. Wow. This is amazing. And you love it.

POWER

PRESENCE

TRIGGER

LIVE

Dansdidaktik kan utgå ifrån att dans är ett sätt att skapa rörelsemedvetenhet och koreografier, men också en möjlighet att dela med sig av kunskap, fantasier, traditioner och livet i stort. Forskning visar hur dans kan skapa meningsfullhet, ökad rörelsemedvetenhet, självkänsla och gruppsammanhållning för elever.

Inflyttningsfesten är en teaterpjäs som handlar om sju unga vuxna som har samlats för en inflyttningsfest. Någon föreslår att de ska leka en lek som går ut på att alla måste lägga sina mobiler på bordet och dela med sig av sina meddelanden och samtal med resten av gruppen. En rad hemligheter och pinsamheter uppdagas under kvällen och festen spårar så småningom ur. Men när de lämnar lägenheten för att åka hem är allting precis som det var i början av kvällen. Det går upp för oss att leken aldrig hände och att hela pjäsen har varit ett tankeexperiment.

Det jag vill utforska är hur mobiltelefoner och sociala medier har gjort intrång i människors allra mest privata sfär och hur det påverkar oss. För tjugo år sedan höll vi våra hemligheter inom oss. Idag finns de i våra mobiler som har blivit lite som våra svarta lådor. Hemligheter, en del oskyldiga andra farliga, uppdagas och människor som känner varandra blir främlingar. Och man kan inte rentvå sig från de hemligheter som finns i mobilen. Min pjäs tar upp ämnen som mikrootrohet, svårigheter att kommunicera med varandra, undanhållande av egna framtidsplaner, så kallade fria förhållanden, relationen till sitt ex och föräldrar som lägger sig i. Ämnen som jag hoppas och tror känns relevanta i vår samtid, och något för var och en att kunna relatera till.

Detta examensarbete är ett utdrag ur pjäsen Inflyttningsfesten.

I

dici là(from here to there): the expression marks a distance, a gap to be bridged, from one place to another, from one moment to another. A ford, in time and in space: a passage, which opens onto uncertainty

II

the freedom that is given me and that I sense as I move

III

advenio

advenio advenire adveni adventum

[AD+VENIO] to come (to), arrive (at), reach; to come on purpose; to come from outside, be imported; (of ships) to arrive, put in; (of other things) to reach, be brought, come into hands of; (of physical conditions) to set in, arise, develop, supervene; (of dates or times) to come, arrive, to come (in time); […] advenientes ad angulos noctis: reaching to the very corners of the night

IV

I HAVE NEVER KNOWN A CLOSENESS LIKE THAT

V

… where line becomes existence

VI

(p.14) on the other side

This performance is a world-making of intimate space and boundedness. The dancers dwell in the smaller subtle movements of couple dancing, the silent negotiations, the tight embrace and the significance of the hands. They work with materials such as tactile contact, rhythmic footwork, pulsing, affectivity, animation, mood, pleasure, imagination, and voice. They pay attention to the emergent figures of the dancing rather than recognition of pre-established categories of the political or ethics. 

This performance is part of a larger practice and study in social and folk dance. I’m interested in the dancing that one has lived with and that one lives. I am currently focusing on the vernacular of African American jazz and in particular the lindy hop, swing and blues dancing. Engaging in these dances has made me attend to and negotiate the schisms between self and other, culture and art, ownership and theft, and the visibility or hiddenness of race in dance.   

 I’ve been focusing on the ongoing negotiation in these couple dances, which is made up of nuanced yet direct shifts of initiating, listening, responding, supporting, resisting or breaking away while continuing to dance together. Social dancing has been a way for me to practice what Audre Lorde describes as ‘the erotic as power’ because it is a scene where the capacities for joy and pleasure are underlined and encouraged in an explicit way, which I value.

Vulnerability Manifesto is a research where I ask, what does it mean for me to usevulnerability as material for artistic work. In this research, I deal with problems that occur inthe process of materialising emotions, through my interest of transforming emotions into aconcrete material.I will try to answer to a question: How can vulnerability be used as a material for performancewithout it becoming a representation or fake? If I claim that I do honest work withoutrepresentation of vulnerability, or acting/faking, what does that mean practically?The main topic in this research is vulnerability. Vulnerability as a word, emotion and as amaterial for performance. I will critically look upon my process with vulnerability, boththrough my own expectations, and with references from the field of contemporary dance. Todo this, I have chosen Yvonne Rainer’s biography Feelings Are Facts- a life (2013) and AnnaGrip’s physical practice.As a working method, I create a physical practice that later on becomes a performance titled“my heart will go on”. In this process, I deal with questions such as, what is a 21centuryachievement society, and what is my position in it? I will also deal with my personalexhaustion and burnout, and use them as a tool in the process of making this research.Vulnerability Manifesto is an empowering personal research. It’s a personal revolution, and aprocess towards accepting sensitiveness, fear, shame and judgment. It’s self-centred, yetuniversal. 

1980 började jag på mimlinjen på Danshögskolan i Stockholm. Jag hade just fyllt 20 år. Vi var fem studenter som hade kommit in på inträdesprov inför en jury på våren. Stanislav anordnade dessutom individuella, där han ensam utgjorde juryn, och där ytterligare fem antogs. Vi var två som hade gått på yrkesförberedande och en från yrkesutbildningen på Balettakademien, en hade gått på Teaterstudion någon hade ingen erfarenhet av teater, en var musiker, någon hade spelat gatuteater utomlands. Adressen var Blasieholmstorg. Undervisningen bedrevs två trappor upp. Stanislav hade ett kontor och omklädningsrum på gatuplan. Lokalerna hade mer en atmosfär av en gammal våning än en skola. All huvudsaklig undervisning skedde i den enda salen; danslektioner, mimlektioner, akrobatiklektioner samt scenframställning. Det var en sal med stuckatur i taket men den var en aning nergången med sprickor i väggarna, urblekta gardiner, några gamla strålkastare och en balettstång. Stora speglar med guldram satt på väggen och på kortsidan stod en vit träbänk. Den vita bänken som alla mimklasser har suttit på medan de tittat på varandras etyder och våndats inför att stiga fram och visa sina egna alster för den stränga mimläraren. En sal, en lärare i mim, en klass på tio studenter. Mimklassens unga kvinnor och män delade ogenerat omklädningsrum och dusch. Plåtskåp stod provisoriskt uppställda.  Ett rum användes som uppehållsrum tillika matplats, inrett med ett kylskåp, några enkla soffor och ett bord. Det var allt.  Efter den fysiska träningen på förmiddagen med morgonlektion i dans och tre timmar mim var vi hungriga, men det var ganska stressande att äta eftersom akrobatiklektionerna låg direkt efter den korta lunchen. Vi åt vår medhavda matsäck och kastade oss in i uppvärmningen på akrobatiken som var tjugo - trettio kullerbyttor framåt med "tour en l 'air" (en piruett i luften) mellan varje kullerbytta och lika många bakåt.  Inför tredje året på utbildningen (1982), flyttade vår klass till lokaler i Teaterhögskolans hus på Södermalm. Högst upp och längst bort i huset fick vi två nyrenoverade salar för vår räkning samt separata omklädningsrum. Stanislav fick ett eget kontor mellan salarna.  Vi studenter fick skolkamrater och en riktig matsal med servering.  Det kändes skönt. Så kom vi att vistas i Teaterhögskolans hus, men fortfarande höra till Danshögskolan. Skolorna hade inget samarbete.  Drygt tio år senare, 1993, blev Mimlinjen en del av Teaterhögskolan.   

Whether stretching should be used in conjunction with exercise is a much debated subject. Stretching has in a large part of dance training received a major stronghold. Recent research has shown that some forms of stretching can reduce performance. The purpose of this study is to compare the current research regarding stretching and how stretching is used in dance teaching. Based on the questions:

- What does the current research say about the effects of static and dynamic stretching?

- Which approach to stretching does a chosen group of dance pedagogues in Sweden have?

- What are the similarities and differences regarding stretching in current research and in the chosen group of dance pedagogues?

This is examined by doing a research review of stretching, a questionnaire survey for dance pedagogues and by doing a content analysis of this material, and finally a comparison of those results. Research and dance pedagogues agree about the positive effects of dynamic stretching and disagree when it comes to the effects of static stretching. Research agrees that it is negative for performance, while many dance pedagogues mean it is positive for performance. Just as the research results the dance pedagogues disagree about the effects of stretching. But generally, research do not consider stretching to be needed as much as dance pedagogues do.

If we are being-of-the-world, how can we ever avoid participation? From this question Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_ action) unfolds. It invites to engage in an ongoing continuum of entanglements, where the moment of connection is unavoidable. This invitation demands that we are attentive to our mutual co-constitutiveness, that we take responsibility for what gets excluded as well as what comes to matter.

Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_action) introduces, purposes and explores a specific format, the live dissertation, an academic instance that demands performative responses during the public defense. It is a dissertation in choreography written through space-time-language-matter with and for human and more-than-human bodies, and other discursive-material becomings. By this Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_action) recognizes the force of what Karen Barad conceptualized as ethico-onto-epistemologocial engtanglements through intra-action. It engages a posthumanist and agential-realist reworking of the notion of performativity, in which all bodies (not only human bodies) come to matter through the world’s performativity—its iterative intra-activity. In this framework, knowledge is made as a direct material engagement, a cutting together-apart—a process by which cuts enact violence but also open up and rework agential conditions of possibility.

During Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_ action) diffractive choreographic methods and techniques, which had been developed through diverse intra-active studies—actions, collaborations, and works that span throughout 2010-2016, were re-activated, applied, manifested, and experienced. These practices were made present through specific agential forces that enacted them—such as breath, text, touch, voice, vegetation, spatial proximity, motion, distance, asphalt, material walls and material voids (the reactor hole), pain, and disgust. These practices also enacted processes of queering causality, agency and relationality, and dislocating authority, while (my / the / our) human and more-than-human body / bodies pursued embodied affinities, and a state of becoming-with. Through these re-activated intra-active studies Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_action) examines and articulates choreography and performance as ever-present negotiations of vulnerability, intimacy, force, and power as enactments that are of-the-world.

As part of the choreographic practice Sugar Rush Productions | Maria Åkesson together with Tsomak Oga, Sooz Romero, and Debora Vega were video documenting Avhandling / Av_handling (Dissertation / Through_action). This documentation together with other remains (as a non-representative residue) will be made available after the defense here: dissertationthroughaction.space

In this essay, I document and reflect on a process of creating a twenty-minute performance called That Time I Swam in a Storage Room (2021), with dreams as its source material. The essay is written in the form of a series of log-book-like entries, which offer an insight into how the work developed throughout each week during the nine-week working period. The process described in this essay, is centred around individual explorations, through reading and try-outs, as well as studio-sessions together with a four-person working group consisting of Ane Carlsen, Anton Hedevang, Jane Sievänen and Heta Asikainen. In the essay, I give an account of how the explorations are executed; by using tools and methods derived from Dadaists and Surrealist art movements, such as the cut-up technique and automatic writing. Fragments of methods from other thinkers and psychoanalysts are also applied in order to harvest dream-images and further work with the content of the dreams, such as Sigmund Freud’s dream interpretation and Carl Jung’s active imagination. The essay ends with reflections on the process of creating the performance.

Under vårt examensprojekt “Krisevangelier” dröjde det länge innan vi fick bekräftatvilken studio vi skulle vara i. Under denna ovissa tid var jag tvungen att börja skissautan att veta om vi skulle vara i en av Blackboxarna i D-huset. Eller i en blackbox iT-huset. Samtidigt gjorde jag även ett projekt i turneformat som även där hade ovissspelplats men som slutligen hamnade på Stadsteaterns gästspelsscen Kilen.Jag har i dessa båda processer reflekterat mycket över dessa olika rums möjligheter ochutmaningar. Att börja skissa innan man vet spelplats var för mig väldigt svårt. I deförsta skisserna för Krisevangelier bestämde jag mig därför bara från att utgå från entom box, utan att skissa in gradäng eller plats för entréer eller sortier. Jag upptäckte attutan ett riktigt fysiskt rum att förhålla mig till blev mina skisser mer som platta bildytormed lite djup. (Bild 1-2)Jag insåg då att utmaningen och möjligheterna som det fysiska rummet ger mig redan iskissprocessen är viktig för mig att ha. Och därför bestämde jag mig för att jobba medfrågeställningen Hur påverkas jag av och hur förhåller jag mig till det konkreta fysiskascenrummet/scenen i skapandet av scenografi?Frågeställningen är relevant i förhållande till andras arbeten och i samhället i stort dårummet alltid är något som alla scenkonstmakare måste förhålla sig till. Man skullekunna hävda att det fysiska rummet/spelplatsen faktiskt är det som kommer allra först ien scenkonstproduktion, och den första nyckeln ett team kan få i processen av att skapascenkonst

This article responds to recent calls for more creative expressions of climate and sustainability transformations. In particular, research literature argues that the formulation of new narratives of sustainable societies may function as a prominent intervention for system changes. Yet, few empirical studies exist on how creative climate and sustainability storytelling elicit varying levels of awareness and engagement. With the intention to advance scholarship in the role of narratives to create engagement with sustainability transformations, this study investigates children’s theater for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as one research site. By analyzing the interactive children’s theater play “Esmeralda and the Dragon—The Global Sustainability Goals,” we show that creative storytelling can offer a meaningful space for engagement with Agenda 2030 and the UN SDGs. In particular, we find that (1) children’s cognitive and emotional associations and experiences shape the meaning of and responses to the SDGs and (2) the play’s fictional elements resonate with children’s emotional frameworks. Based on the results, we argue that new stories are needed for sustainability transformations and that there is transformative power in the creative and performance arts in this respect, and we call for further exploration of various publics engagements with sustainability storytelling.

In this study I investigate differences and similarities between contact improvisation and floor work

within contemporary dance. The aim is to explore whether a floor work class can benefit from integrating

exercises from contact improvisation.

To answer these questions I do literature studies, interviews and let a group of dancers explore it through

movement. The dancers write a self-report in the end where they reflect upon their own experience on

integrating contact improvisation into a floor class. All my analyses are done using a phenomneographical

analysis model.

The result shows that the physical work is quite similar – such as working with the physical laws and the

body’s functionality. The learning environment is different though, where it is more open and

experimental within contact improvisation.

The self-reports show that working with a partner through improvisation can help the dancers to

understand different themes within the floor work in a deeper/different way. It also creates a more playful

and easy going climate. As a pedagogue I experience that I give the participants more space to reflect

together. Difficulties that come up are that the set movement phrases get unclear and that there are many

things for the dancers to focus on.

We explore Peirce's pragmatic conception of sign action, as a distributed and emergent view of cognition and exemplify with the emergence of classical ballet. In our approach, semiosis is a temporally distributed process in which a regular tendency towards certain future outcomes emerges out of a history of sign actions. Semiosis self-organizes in time, in a process that continuously entails the production of more signs. Emergence is a ubiquitous condition in this process: the translation of signs into signs cannot be inferred from the properties of the components of a semiotic triad alone, but has to take into account a complex interaction between a micro-semiotic and macro-semiotic level of description. This interaction can be understood as an interplay of potentialities and tendencies, or upward constitutive determinative relations and downward selective determinative relations. According to this view, emergence is a central defining condition of processes of meaning. Ballet is a sign in action. The emergence of classical ballet is a self-regulatory process, in which a system of different kinds of cognitive artifacts (musical, bodily/motor, spatial/architectonic) and agents obtained a stable semiotic relation throughout many phases of development between the 16th and the 19th Century. One case is the development of the verticality of dance in classical ballet as a semiotic relation connecting proscenium arch stages, dancing bodies, and audiences. This development is micro-semiotically determined by the spatial constraints of the proscenium arch stage, and macro-semiotically determined by a historical construction of the dancing body as a sign within a network of semiotic chains, such as the intersemiotic regulation of body of the dancer by principles coming from painting. This is not only the emergence of actual meaning, but also the emergence of an open-ended field of potential and general meanings, an autonomous tendency of development. To say that ballet, as sign action, emerges, is to say that cognitive artifacts such as dancer's bodies, stages and audience's point of view, musical compositions, costumes, all sorts of supporting institutions, etc, constitute a niche for sign action, interacting according to tendencies of development that didn't exist before.

Film music has increasingly entered into the concert programmes in the last twenty years, to become now standard repertoire not only of the so-called 'Pops Concerts' but also of the more classical-oriented ones. Yet, the presentation of the film-music repertoire in concert programmes is a corner of the film-music field that has received little scholarly attention – if none at all. Archival research, particularly using audiovisual archives, is the key to reconstruct how film music has been gradually introduced into concert programmes and in what forms. 

As an example, I propose to describe the methodology and findings of the research that I conducted in Boston, U.S.A., in 2010 and 2011, the aim of which was to demonstrate John Williams' seminal contribution to the legitimisation of film music as a viable concert repertoire. The research was conducted at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Archives – where I compared the concert programmes of the Williams era with the ones from the previous Arthur Fiedler era – and at the WGBH Media Archives – where I watched all the Williams episodes of the TV show Evening at Pops (1969-2004). The archival research was more rewarding that expected, the findings demonstrating my thesis very convincingly. In particular, the videos I watched at WGBH, combined with the study of the programmes at the BSO Archives, were the basis of my classification of the forms and formats in which film music is typically adapted for concert performance. The video materials were also cardinal in showing that Williams has also had a central role in developing the multimedia concert presentations – i.e. an orchestra playing live to projected film clips – in its two formats (“multimedia concert piece” and “multimedia film piece”).

Film music has increasingly populated the concert programs in the last twenty years. Yet, the presentation of the film-music repertoire in concerts is a corner of the film–music field that has received little scholarly attention. Archival research combined with the study of audio–visual documents in particular is the key to reconstruct the story of the presentation of film music in concerts. As a case study, I present the findings of the research that I conducted in Boston, U.S.A., in 2010 and 2011. Its aim was to demonstrate John Williams's seminal contribution to the legitimization of film music as a viable concert repertoire during his tenure as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra—“America's orchestra”. The results showed very convincingly that John Williams's association with the most trend–setting and visible orchestra in the U.S.A. has been a major force and a seminal influence for the acceptance of film music as a legitimate concert repertoire.

Multimedia events are part of contemporary society. Music, theatre, and visual arts have been increasingly collaborating with each other to offer aesthetic experiences that are as immersive and multisensorial as possible. Film music has also entered the multimedia arena. Indeed, a very successful type of concert presentation of the film-music repertoire is the multimedia form: a live orchestra plays to projected film clips. This multimedia presentations of film music should be of interest not only to music scholars – film music has undeniably become a favourite repertoire to fuel concert programmes, and multimedia presentations are the most fitting form to present film music. Multimedia presentations should also be of interest to film scholars, as multimedia presentations are a revival of past film-viewing experiences that can be traced back to the silent era. The case study here is John Williams's conductorship of the Boston Pops Orchestra, which has been seminal not only because it brought more film music into concert programmes, but also highly influential for its experiments with the multimedia presentations.

The Boston Pops has had a prominent role in the validation of film music as a legitimaterepertoire for concert programs, particularly during John Williams’s tenure (1980–1993).The paper focuses on the orchestra’s approach to film music, demonstrating that the present-day acknowledgment of the film-music repertoire as a legitimate source of concert pieces islargely the result of Williams’s policy and example during his Boston years. The diffuse useof illustrative film montages in film-music concerts today or the recent phenomenon of entirefilms with live orchestral accompaniment are also consequences of Williams’s successfulaudio-visual presentations with the Boston Pops.

The Boston Pops is a world-class orchestra playing “non-high Art music” in one of the most prestigious concert venues in the world: Symphony Hall in Boston. The first in its genre, with an impressive array of best-selling recordings, tours, and nation-wide radio and TV broadcasts, the Boston Pops has always been at the forefront of American music and has, over the years, achieved huge popularity. In 1980, famed Hollywood composer John Williams was named to succeed the late Fiedler. While several film composers had conducted film music concerts before, this was the very first case of a Hollywood composer appointed leader of such an important musical institution. During his fourteen-year tenure, Williams seized the opportunity to erode the “iron curtain” that segregated “applied” film music from “absolute” concert music.

The identification and development of talent is a key concern for many dance educators, yet little research has been conducted in the area. In order to understand better how to optimise dance talent development among young people, systematic and rigorous research is needed. This paper summarises and discusses the key findings of a ground-breaking longitudinal interdisciplinary research project into dance talent development. Over two years, almost 800 young dancers enrolled at one of the eight nationwide Centres for Advanced Training (CATs) participated in the project. Physical factors, psychological characteristics, and injury data were collected quantitatively while the students' thoughts and perspectives on commitment, creativity and cultural variables were captured using qualitative methods. The largest study of its kind, the project yielded a wide range of findings with a number of practical implications. The main focus of this paper is on how the project findings apply to important pedagogic topics such as audition criteria, passion and commitment, and teaching behaviour. The area of talent identification and development is complex, yet this research has begun to shed new light on the notion of talent and has provided novel insights to support its development.

To struggle in the uncomfortable.

How to find paths from the views / ideas / statements / thoughts to be shaped into artistic expression? How do I proceed to work actively with the ideas from the starting point, while the work continuously find itself in a process and develop into a area of action?

How to find a subject/the subject or questions/the questions that I think I'm searching for. Subjects that are hard to define, point out. Working with the unknown. crossing the limits. To stay in the challenge when I want to leave. To stay and take the chance to understand the feeling of resistance. To become aware about myself and my routines, my prejudices, lack of connection with myself. My own ego that is working with self-fulfilment and in need of confirmation, versus the ego in shape of relieving the conscience through a conclusion of something bigger than the own ego.