Gunilla Heilborn & Pieter Ampe ^(SWE/BEL) Give It Some Time 27-30 October 2020

Programme

In December 2018, Belgian dancer/choreographer Pieter Ampe and Swedish choreographer/filmmaker Gunilla Heilborn met by chance in Iceland. They have never met before, but both find themselves in a position where they want to try new things and decide to do a project together. Gunilla has seen a couple of Pieters performances, and likes some of what he does, but not all. Their working methods are diametrically opposed; Pieter is preoccupied with intimacy and sexual exploration and uses his own life, love and struggle as the basis for his artistic work. Gunilla loves to read and has always preferred to use external sources as inspiration for her projects; she gets bored with the idea of starting from her private self. They think that their differences are their strength. Over time, they also find some similarities, such as that they both suffer from Chronophobia = an excessive fear of time passing.

Work proceeds at a slow pace. They move forward. Showing each other things they like and trying to understand each other. Then comes the pandemic and the constant disruption of plans ultimately leads to Pieter Ampe not being able to appear on stage during the autumn tour, but being replaced by a stand-in, complete with beard and appropriate dance skills.

This makes the project take a different direction, transforming the Give It Some Time  to Gunilla's highly personal version of the slow collapse of an unfinished collaboration. From the diary:

Dec 2018
Meet Pieter in Reykjavik.
He later tells me that he fell asleep during my performance, but dreamt that he liked it.
I should have realised even then that this would be difficult.

About the choreographer

Pieter Ampe

Pieter Ampe grew up in Ghent, Belgium and studied dance in Salzburg, Arnhem and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels. He was selected for the danceWEB grant programme in 2006 and has since created and participated in over ten works. Since 2009 Ampe is an artist at CAMPO, an art centre and production house in Ghent.

His choreographic opus includes everything from his own solos to group pieces for, among others, Norwegian Carte Blanche and Iceland Dance Company. In 2020, Pieter Ampe is involved in a new work by Demaged Goods/Meg Stuart and participates in the collaboration "Give it some time" with Gunilla Heilborn.