Björn Säfsten Conversation and movement for retired people 8-11 March 2016

Programme

If you usually sit in the audience and wonder why it looks the way it does, you will have the chance to take a physical deep dive into contemporary dance. Try the approach and get to know the ideas behind Säfsten's choreography. No previous experience is required, just a curious body.

The day will look something like this:
10.00-10.45 Presentation of the day and a simple warm-up.
10.45-11.00 Short break
11.00-13.00 Exercises
13.00-14.15 Lunch and coffee
14.15-16.00 Exercises

Clothing: Comfortable and loose clothing, you will be moving and staying still, it may be nice to bring an extra piece of clothing to wear so you don't get cold. Shoes are not needed but socks are fine. There will be an opportunity to change here for those who wish.

Register by buying a ticket for the day of your choice. The price includes lunch and coffee. The maximum number of seats per event is 20. From 60 years and up! If you have any questions, please contact Michelle in the programme department. [email protected]

Lunch & fika will be shared in the small foyer, please let Michelle know by 4 March if you have any allergies or other dietary issues that are important to know.

More about Björn Säfsten

Björn Säfsten creates choreographic art in close collaboration with his artistic teams. He is currently working on the work Dining room, a commission for Regionteater Väst's Dansensemble in Borås and Göteborgsoperans Danskompani. This is followed by Language fools, created for Säfsten Produktion in co-production with Regionteatern Blekinge Kronoberg and toured in Dansnät Sweden in autumn 2016. Säfsten has in recent years worked as a researcher at Umeå Art Academy where he conducted a four-year research project with the philosopher Per Nillson. During these years 2012-2015 he also created his latest works: Introduction 2012, Fictional copies 2013, Idiots 2014. Säfsten has been active as a choreographer since 2003 and a regular choreographer at Dansens Hus in Stockholm.

Here is how Björn Säfsten describes his work
The work of choreographer Björn Säfsten examines, dissects and exposes the body and consciousness and their joint actions. At the centre is the creation of 'another body', a different conception of human physicality that evokes images that problematise our understanding of human nature. The physical movement exposes images that originate from a particular physical action in a random way. As a result, the works can take unexpected visual twists and turns. It often reshapes itself as it is performed, manifesting itself anew each time in every encounter with an audience.

Our aim is to expose bodily dilemmas by deliberately creating situations where the dancer's thoughts are revealed, laid bare to the spectator. The work plays with the notion of language - trying to confuse the spectator and remove them from the expected reading of the body. The body is seen as an assemblage of multiple wills, desires and commands to get away from a notion of bodily and mental unity. Changing the notion of the body and the embodiment of objects, as well as the relationship between the two, is central to the exploration and presentation.

The precise instruction of the individual movement is the heart of the work. They are created in the moment through actions that engage the dancer with a mixture of commands, constraints and bodily parameters. The methods behind the work point towards transparency and non-singularity, revealing the flow of thought and movement through the dancer in the moment of movement. The energies of the movements vary from tentative hesitation to convinced determination, conscious stillness and bursts of activity. The inconsistency of the movements creates the non-singularity, the non-linear narrative that interests Björn and the artists working on the different choreographies. The work goes against our traditional notion of understanding, which aims to include the diversity of the individual spectators as a factor in the relationship between stage and theatre, between the dancers' arena and the audience's. We want to discuss how violent language underlies the activity. We want to discuss how violently language suppresses both the dancer's and the spectator's relationship to movement and body. We want to reveal the multifaceted understanding of bodily experience and explore how it can be used in private life as well as in the public and political sphere.