Ellen Söderhult
RUDY
Part of double bill with Ellen Söderhult, How to do things with Romance: a prologue and Rudy.
Mo 5.6.2017, 19:00-21:00, MDT
‘What if we shift the question from ‘who do I want to be?’ to the question, ‘what kind of life do I want to live with others?’ Judith Butler
Understanding dance as a continuous negotiation between historical, collective and personal habits, norms, and desires, her question felt like an important, impracticable but inspiring starting point for a dance by many. It became clear that to support, submit to, and care for a proposal and to fill the verb ”following” with agency was important. In a wish to unveil what norms and ideologies reside within dance performance. it started with questioning not the form dance takes, but for what reasons and what dance’s purposes potentially could be. This, out of the ambition to not take any purpose for granted.
In this performance individual dance histories, dreams, desires and memories reappear, to collide with other ones and be compiled to a new oneness. Taken out of contexts the separate dances constitute a new whole that make altered meanings appear, open for other readings and different understandings. Out of a view on creativity as collective and art as more than the production of artefacts "RUDY" proposes a calm moment where empathy, care, following, supporting, repeating and imitating are considered vital aspects of art.
Ellen Söderhult
Ellen Söderhult is a dancer and choreographer living in Stockholm. Her most recent piece GROV (ROUGH) deals with the monstrous feelings and textures of bittersweet love. Previous choreographic works have often concerned the collective as a protagonist and texture in sound and movement. As in the team-sporty punk ballet How to do things and with Romance and Rudy, as well as in pieces where choir singing and vibrating base has been central elements such as Shane et al and DUNKA DUNKA.
Her work has been shown at venues such as Heizhaus (Berlin), Black Box (Oslo), Dansehallerne, Danseatelier (Copenhagen), Bastun och Båthuspaviljongen (Mariehamn), Ateneum (Helsinki), Dansstationen (Malmö), Dansmässan/Scenkonstmuséet, MDT, Weld, Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus (Stockholm), DansPlats Skog (Stråtjära), Dansinitiativet (Luleå) and Massmanska kvarnen (Ronneby).
Ellen performs for and collaborates with others, such as Marvil Iglesias and Catarina Zarazua Mujo, Sindri Runudde, Iki Gonzalez Magnusson, Johanssons Pelargoner och Dans, Stina Nyberg, Nadja Hjorton and Sorour Darabi. In 2015 she initiated an open source platform for exchange within artistic practices called Nobody’s Business together with Eleanor Bauer and Alice Chauchat. Ellen is educated at DOCH/SKH and received the Cullberg award in 2022.
Concept and direction
Dance and choreography
Text read during the performance
Light design
Support
Nordisk Kulturfond, Kulturkontakt Nord, Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland, Stockholms Stad, Ålands Kulturdelegation, Weld, Köttinspektionen Dans, Danseatelier, Nordens Institut på Åland
The previosly participating dancers and choreographers of RUDY have also contributed to and supported this performance
Show More
