Balettakademien
The Changing Room

The idea lies in the commentary: “I’m probably just gonna go and sleep in MDT’s corridor.”
Material was created by saying “Yes” to every impulse and association.
The result is an adventure

In “Obs!” the artist relates to the observation of himself. In which ways are one observing the surroundings? How does ones behavior change with the knowledge of being observed? Is it even possible to do an objective observation?

Big city life. Everything rushing by. It’s like a shoal of fish with a certain tempo and constant flow. It’s hard to stay away from it and at a certain point you need to realize that you’re a part of it. Keeping the tempo going, becoming one of them – the stressed people.

At this point, some of us, if not everyone, starts to defend our selves from the stressful lifestyle. It can be the headfones on the subway, the looking down on your phone display doing nothing or just not paying attention to whats happening around you on the street – because you believe that if you shut the stressful world out for a moment, you wont let it affect you.

When we made this choreography we worked with these thoughts and came to the conclusion that we miss out on beauty in life because of this defensive behavior.

Wouldn’t you for example walk by the extraordinary meeting of two dogs in the park on you’re way to work with thousand things on your mind, a coffee in your hand and somewhere to be in 5 minutes?
What does this lifestyle do to us? Do we become less aware of our surrounding and what do we miss out on but choosing this big city lifestyle? Do we even listen to our selves? Would I listen if the body told me to rest? Am I living in my own tempo or in somebody elses and would I recognize love if i saw it, if I never have the time to love?

Annika and Lisa are the two dogs, meeting in the park for the first time, in Stockholm morning time. We have our own tempo and emotions. We don’t let it in. The big city life. Or we just think it’s more real to have our eyes open for the beauty of living in present tense.

Lyrics & music: Jonathan Johansson & Johan Eckeborn
Live music (Tuesday only)
Base: Olov Nordström, drums: Simon Jonsson, vocal: Ida Hammarbacken

dancer – elinor bratteby, created and edited – nicole neidert, music – crystal castles

“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” – Isaac Newton
professors – Camille Cloud , Sky Von Haller, Wendy Collarbone, assistant – Lucy Wheelchair, music – Paul Kalkbrenner, The Glitch Mob

Proxima Centauri. Latin proxima: meaning “next to” or “nearest to” is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years (4.0×1013 km) distant in the constellation of Centaurus. It was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes, the Director of the Union Observatory in South Africa, and is the nearest known star to the Sun, although it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

Today we are blessed with a technology that allows us to contact friends on the other side of the planet, but yet, a lot of people experience a big lack of nearness in their lives. The connection you feel with a person over the phone or computer is not in any way satisfying our basic needs for touch and scent. I am interested in the human need of physical closeness to another person. It is a well known fact that we all need it and that it in most cases has positive effects on our psych to feel the touch, warmth and smell of another human being – it can make us feel pleasure, confirmation and joy. Still we avoid so many opportunities to receive all this. We struggle to avoid getting too close to strangers in a crowded subway train, we hang out at Facebook instead of “irl”, we don’t hold hands with friends because that might me perceived as too intimate. Why does touch have to be intimate? Why are we afraid of being intimate with people? Where is the border between being friendly and being intimate? How close do you have to be to feel physical closeness? Where is your border for physical closeness? How do I challenge you to break down your borders and give you the chance to experience the effects of physical closeness to a stranger?

The Expert Dance Company with Lisa Nilsson, Isabella Svärdstam, Ingrid Kvalvik Sörensen, Evylyn Frylén, Rebecca Matani, Alina Bjerkland, Annika Bergmark

Why do people disappear? One day they’re just gone.
Did we miss something?
Or did we choose to ignore it?
Could we have changed it to the better?
Or is there no such thing as a happy ending?

“Under My Skin” is about the feeling to live alone in a world full of people. Not to be seen or heard by anyone.  It’s about a choice, to keep on living or slowly disappear in to darkness.

This solo is inspired by my own thoughts upon focus. Conscious and unconscious focus. Quiet and chaotic. I have compared the many forms of focus with how the ocean can appear. Quiet. Chaotic. What`s happening beneath a quiet surface? How easy – and how hard – it is to change focus? What does it take to lose it? What does it take to regain it?

Can you really lose focus? It is always there – though maybe not where you wanted it to be in the first place. Can you control the focus? The movements reflect this, but an important part of the process has been to let the movements stand for themselves.

Music: Linnea Olsson “The Ocean”
Arr: Christine Vik Bratvold