Belinda
/ 16. oktober 2009 16:00
Today is my last day at work as I am pregnant and will now go on maternity leave for a while! For the last six weeks, I have been a guest up in the marketing department. I have generally been looking like this...
Being up here on the other side of the organisation has been a complete eye-opener, as well as interesting and educational. I have always enjoyed to write, so this gave me a chance to write some texts for them, and through this have realised that I could imagine working in this field one day! I guess the combination of marketing and dance is quite a dynamic combination, and as a dancer it is fun to think from the other side about how you as a dancer would like to be marketed, or think it should be! I have worked for fourteen years as a dancer, and through the years you form your judgements and opinions about how dance is marketed and how the world sees dance. I have had a chance to work a bit on the website, write a few texts about the various performances we do, and I also wrote a few texts for the program of Black Silk. Now all I need to do is learn Swedish!
I have been surrounded by four other people in this department, who have made this a pleasure and such fun! We have two steady marketing department emplyees here - they are Annica and Liselotte. They have delegated the work between them, and it's really interesting to see how two people can share a job so smoothly. Interestingly enough, it is these two that are the life and soul of all of our premier parties, dancing and enjoying themselves tremendously! (maybe it's because they organise the parties!!!) This is Annica in her typical "I WORK HARD LOOK".
And Liselotte smiling away.......
Then there is Tanya, who has recently been employed at Skånes, and her speciality is integration and education of dance. Tanya has been working in England for many years, and and has such a wide knowledge of dance. Here she is looking really happy!
For five months, we have Sara working with us...
She has been studying media and cultural studies, and is now here for her practical. She has been so busy, and it is her that wrote a lot of the text for the program and made the small video clips found on our website.
I had no idea that the company advertised so much. There are lists and lists of people from different databases, and these people are contacted through email and post. Then are flyers in English, Danish and Swedish as well as posters and banners all over Malmö. This keeps them really busy, and I have actually been really shocked how much work they have, and how they actually manage to finish it all. They are also working on a few different productions at a time, so it's always swapping between different tasks, meetings, outings, school visits etc. One really has to be good at multi tasking and keeping on track!
Here is our wonderful marketing crew...
So, I can say that being in the office is really different to being a dancer in the studio. Somehow it is very satisfying to write a text, or complete a task and feel that it is done. It's also rewarding to read something that you have written, or something that you have fixed on the website. The satisfaction that I get from dance is such a different feeling, and it is so good to experience these different sides to me. It's a bit hard for me to sit all day on a chair, as I'm so used to being active, and can imagine it would be quite hard to work like this permanently. Although it's been good for me and very interesting, I have started missing being in the studio, rehearsing and training! It's very weird to be away from my dance colleagues - usually I see them for seven hours a day! I can say that I am definitely not done with dance yet, and cannot wait to get back in shape next year! Right now I feel like a different person, and as you can see I look like one too.......
So, it is time for me Ursula (my office name) to sign out for quite a while. I am not sure yet when I'll be back at Skånes, but I will be back! I will miss my dance colleagues, and now I will really miss my "new office" colleagues! It's been so nice to get to know them better, and I would get pregnant any day to have the chance to do this again :-) But, right now I am off to watch the performance of Black Silk, which I am really looking forward to..... seventeen of my colleagues showing their stuff in a fantastic show that everyone should come and see.
Until next year...... Belinda xxx
Belinda
/ 14. september 2009 12:37
Mats Ek and Cullberg Ballet were responsible for many of the greatest dancers and choreographic works of the 20th century. I was lucky enough to meet and talk to one of these dancers last week…
About four years ago, I went to Lund to watch a performance of Cullberg Ballet. This was the first time that I had seen this company live on stage. After about five minutes into the first piece, my eyes found someone on the stage, and could not let go of watching him. I was spellbound by his presence, his physicality and the ease with which he attacked the movements. I found out after the show that this dancer was Rafael Sady, an Israeli dancer who had been in the company since 1992. A while after that, I heard that he had retired, and have often wondered since what had happened to this extraordinary dancer.
Last week when I went to take class on Thursday morning, I stood at the barre and looked across the studio, and there he was! Rafael was performing in “Cicadarmix” in our very own theatre! So, I took this as my cue to catch up with him and ask him a few questions about his career with Cullberg Ballet, and some of his thoughts about dance.
Rafael was born on a Kibbutz in the South of Israel, and studied at the Bat Dor School for three years before joining the Bat Dor Company where he stayed for two years. After this, he moved to Switzerland where he joined the Geneva Ballet. He danced for this company for seven years, where he met and worked with many of the great choreographers. It was here that he met Mats Ek, when he danced in his piece entitled “Cain and Abel”. Rafael enjoyed very much working with Mats, and decided to give him a call. Mats immediately offered Rafael a job with Cullberg Ballet, and so in 1992 he packed bags and moved to Sweden. It was that next season that would be Mats Ek’s last season as director of the company, and so during that year, the company performed many of his pieces. Rafael was extremely happy to have this opportunity to be in so many of his works.
After this, when it changed directorship, the company started to work with many different choreographers. Rafael mentions a few being Jiri Kilian, Ohad Naharin, Phillip Taylor, Carolyn Carlsson amongst others. One regret he has is that he never worked with William Forsythe who had been in the company a few years before he arrived. During these years, Rafael had many dance partners and danced with many of the ‘Cullberg Greats’! Our very own ex rehearsal director Monica Mangarelli, partnered him in ‘Solo for 2’, one of Mats’ famous choreographies. During his time in the company, there were another five Israelis in the company, which meant that although he was so far away from home, he felt some connection through these colleagues. The company toured so much in this time, and he has great memories of visiting many exotic places. Although touring made it hard to keep a steady social life going, he felt like a real ambassador for Sweden, and has no regrets at all.
If you can imagine how many ballets he must have danced in during his time at the company, and how many choreographers and dancers that must have passed through his life, it’s amazing that he can so clearly describe his favorite pieces and roles. Among these are Mats Ek’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in which he danced the role of Carabosse, ‘Giselle’ where he danced Hilarion and ‘Carmen’ where he danced Don Jose. He also enjoyed very much ‘Solo for 2’ and ‘Fluke’. One of his fondest experiences was dancing in Swan Lake, in which many group sections brought the whole cast on stage for almost two hours. He says that this was such a strong feeling, and everything around that performance was also so special, such as the preparation which involved having wigs and make up put on to them. He also enjoyed very much Jiri Kylian’s ‘Forgotten Land’ and choreographies by Christopher Bruce. When he was still at Geneva Ballet, Rafael met Ohad Naharin, who he immediately clicked and felt at ease with. He really enjoyed his style and felt it so natural for his body. He worked with him a few times over the years, and his particular favorite piece is ‘Vara’ which he put together for Cullberg Ballet. Generally, Rafael notes that looking back, it was not the leading roles that he necessarily enjoyed the most, and it was not that he needed to do solos to have better experiences, but that being a part of that ensemble, meant the most to him.
During his years at Cullberg, it was very important for Rafael to concentrate on the one language of Mats Ek. He wanted to really go into this style and master it, which in the beginning was a challenge, but eventually started to feel like home, and brought him so many years of pleasure. Mats in return still trusts Rafael very much, and often calls him to restage his works with various companies. This he enjoys doing very much, but does find it a bit weird not being the one going on to the stage!
These days, Rafael still lives in Stockholm where he is now involved in Interior design for magazines and photography. He is able to use his creativity for this, and feels a strong connection to dance through the visual aspects and the linear images. He works with dance sometimes, and manages to fit these professions in parallel to each other. He feels that he needs to be careful that he does not dance too much, as he wants to move forward in his life. Rafael admits, that after one has experienced dance, it is hard to match that feeling, and that it’s not easy to find the same satisfaction. But, he is finding different satisfactions now that make him happy.
I often wonder how someone who has dedicated their life to dance will feel when their career comes to an end and they can look back and ponder over it. After a thirty year career in dance, Rafael feels that the people he met along the way and the places that he visited must be the highpoint of it all, but that it all feels like a journey on which he went, which while it moved along, he went with the flow, but it’s only when you jump off the train that you can slowly start to look back and realize and absorb it all. He feels so lucky and so thankful for his career which went so well, and which brought him and us the audience so much.
I felt so touched to speak in depth to someone that touched me so much on the stage. After I spoke to Rafael, I watched the performance of Cicadarmix, and was once again touched by his gift! As a dancer, you perform for an audience, but you are always very much ‘in to’ yourself and have no idea what people feel or experience when they see you. I can only hope that I can give even a small amount of what he gave to audiences all over the world for so many years. Thank you Rafael for your dance, for your passion, and for your time talking to me!
Belinda
/ 4. september 2009 12:55
At Skånesdansteater, we have a dancer who has assumed the role of "resident blogger"! Peder Nilsson has been updating the blog on a very regular basis, and so you've probably seen what we've been up to. Since it has all been in Swedish, I thought I would give you a little update in English in case you haven't been following!
The new season started in August, and since then we have been really busy. We started by performing in Sommarscen in Pildamsparken and showed extracts of a variety of pieces.
Here we are doing Berlin choreographed by Hofesh Shechter. (photo Nelson Rodriguez-Smith) From left to right we have Anette, Allyson, Belinda, Jonas Jing Yi, Vidar, Adel and Sara. Allyson, Jing-Yi and Adel are three new dancers that have joined us this season. Adel is Swedish, Allyson is half French and half Swedish and Jing-Yi is Chinese.
Here we are doing an extract from Halliburton Freedom choreographed by Fredrik "benke" Rydman. (photo Nelson Rodriguez-Smith) From left to right we see Belinda, Sam and Jonas. Sam is a new dancer who is English.
Again Halliburton Freedom. (photo Nelson Rodriguez-Smith) Here we see Belinda, Hazuki, Jonas and Sam. Hazuki is a new dancer joining us and she is from Japan.
This is a piece that was choreographed by Toan Cao Duc and is entitled Hai Mat. (photo Nelson Rodriguez-Smith) The four dancers are Hang, Toan, Luong and Tanh. These four dancers are members of the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet and are guesting with us for the next few months. They will be a part of our new production Black Silk. This piece Hai Mat will feature in Black Silk, so we were given a sneak preview in Sommarscen!
Adel, Jing Yi, Hazuki and Allyson take their bow after the show!
Adel's little brother wants to join him on the stage!
We also performed an extract from fragile/entity choreographed by Susanna Leinonan which was part of our production Interference, and Heart of Silk choreographed by Pontus Lidberg which will be part of our Black Silk production. It was really fun to perform outdoors and to so many people. There was a huge audience both days, and it felt great!
The week after that we performed in Copenhagen as part of the Copenhagen Summerdans festival held in Politigården - an outdoor amphitheatre in the Police Headquarters. We performed Berlin again, and really enjoyed being part of that festival - it is such a beautiful stage and the atmosphere there is very special.
We performed together with Danish Dance Theatre, The Finnish National Ballet and Unge Dansekompaniet. (our ex-director Marie Brolin-Tani's new company) That was also where I danced in my last performance as I will have a baby in December!
So, now we are working on our new production Black Silk. It will premier on 10 October, and will run until 31 October. It will be showing at the Malmö Opera and will have a live orchestra. There will be three pieces included in the evening. The first is Hai Mat - the one that was previewed at Sommarscen choreographed by Toan Cao Duc and danced by the Vietnamiese dancers. There will be a new creation by Jorma Uotinen which is called Black Water. The third piece in the evening is Heart of Silk choreographed originally for the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet by Pontus Lidberg.
This is the picture that is used in the poster and in the advertisements for this production. It is Rumiko Otsuka in the picture, who has returned to guest with us for this production. If you can see - she is under water in this picture! This photo is the result of a whole day's work, which entailed quite a lot! It took place at Aq-va-kul swimming pool here in Malmö.
It started with Rumiko having a "make over"! She had a make up artist doing her make up, and a wig was attached to her head.
The photographer Peo Olsson then had to be geared up in a diving suit so that he could set up the camera underwater to take the pictures.
Rumiko then jumped in the water in her fancy outfit! Jonas - our very own dancer is also a diver! He was there at the photo shoot, to help Rumiko under the water.
And action! Rumiko had many trips under the water to take the pictures. It was quite tricky for her to stay there, so Jonas was holding her by the legs to keep her down a few seconds so that they could take a few shots. She was exhausted afterwards, but it was worth it - look how fantastic she looks in the end result!
So, at the moment the dancers are rehearsing for Black Silk. Jorma Uotinen has been here this week working on his piece, and inbetween they are rehearsing Heart of Silk.
As I can not dance that much at the moment, I take class every day , and then I help out in the marketing department! It has been really fun to experience another side of the company, and it's very been very eye-opening as I see how much they have to do, and how much time it takes to do all these small things. This week I was working on the web-site, and have added new pictures to each dancer's profile page - check them out!
So - that's it from me today -I will try to keep you updated about what is going on! Until then I have no doubt that Peder will fill you in :-)
Belinda
/ 28. augusti 2009 14:26
Last year I received a scholarship from Konstnärsnämndens to go to Israel and study the “GAGA” dance technique that Ohad Naharin started a few years ago. I decided to go during my December vacation, and I spent two weeks in Tel Aviv. I have written a short text describing my experience of Tel Aviv and of the “GAGA” technique. If anybody has any comments, please let me know!
Last year the Batsheva Dance Company came to Copenhagen to perform, and I was really intrigued with the physical capabilities of the dancers. When I heard that they train “GAGA” everyday, I was really interested as to where this technique could take my body. Almost all of the dancers in the company have extremely mobile lower backs, and this is something I wish for often! I didn’t think that it could be possible for every dancer to be naturally this way, and so decided to explore further this technique!
Originally Ohad developed this technique after suffering a back injury, and he thought of it as a way to condition and look after the body. It is based on one’s natural movement, and is all about moving freely in the space. Ohad, who is also the artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, was originally the only teacher of “GAGA”, but as time has passed and the technique has evolved, he has trained a few of his dancers, enabling them to teach and pass on the method. I was lucky enough to join company class everyday. As well as these classes, “People GAGA classes” exist. These classes are aimed at non-dancers. All sorts of people attend these classes, which allow people to let go, enjoy and express themselves, without the added pressure of needing rhythm, co-ordination, or a mirror in front of them making them feel self-conscious or inhibited. I also attended these classes, which take place every evening.
The difference between these two types of classes was quite vast. The company is taught only by Ohad Naharin, and this being his technique, the class feels pure and one can feel that it originates from his mind, as all of the images that he gives are so clear and relevant. The evening classes are taught by his dancers that he has approved to teach the method. Therefore each teacher adds their own personal touch, and also as these evening classes are aimed at non-dancers, there is a different emphasis. Once a month Ohad teaches the evening class, and this a huge occasion amongst the “People GAGA” people! I was lucky enough to be there when this evening occurred. The Batsheva Dance Company’s studio is huge, and on that particular evening, I would say that around one hundred people were standing around waiting for the class to begin. At seven o’clock, in walked the master! Ohad walked to the centre of the room, as everybody surrounded him in anticipation. This was a feeling that I will never forget, and one that was extremely special. The room was quiet and still, and slowly people began to mimic Ohad as he started to move in his own body’s natural way. After a while he turned on some electronic music in the background. (All of which he apparently composes himself – him being a music student graduate from Julliard School in New York) There was such energy in the room, and it was quite touching for me to see so many people of all ages letting go of themselves and enjoying every minute of this hour. After the class, people were elated and there was such a friendly vibe in the studio. It was a complete “feel good” workout and quite an experience!
The company classes were of a more serious nature, and there was a very clear mood of inner research and concentration. Each day the class varied a bit, but basically followed the same structure. What I noted as very new to me and very beneficial, were the lack of mirrors. The company never use mirrors for training or for rehearsals, and I found this quite fascinating, as I felt how usually I become very frontal in my dance, as we spend so much of the time looking in the mirror. There is such a difference in ‘feeling’ movement as opposed to ‘seeing’ it. It was an hour and a half class, which built up to a climatic ending of running, jumping and feeling completely warm and ready for a day’s rehearsal. It warms the body up in a complete and unusually organic way, which I was not used to. As it is based a lot on one’s own natural movement, you can choose how much you put in to it, so depending on how tired you are, or how sore your body is, you can vary the levels of energy. It also demands more personal commitment and responsibility from yourself, because you are deciding what you do, and you are researching how your body feels and moves on that particular day. It entails focus and a large amount of imagination, as Ohad gives many images to the dancers as they move around, to change their experience from minute to minute. For me, this technique is based mainly on the images from the teacher that guide you and give you an all round experience for the body. The images that Ohad has developed, allow you to feel dance in a very different way. A few of my favourite ones, were “ feel the bones floating in the body, disconnected from the muscles and the flesh”, “feel the blood flowing through the body – feel the warmth it creates as it passes through different areas of the body”, “float – just stand and float and feel the body moving as one entity”, “feel air between each vertebrae”, “direct different parts of the body upwards, as if exposing them to the sun”. These images make you move and feel in a different way, and made me realise how much the mind is connected to how we move, and what you think can make such an impact on what others see. It is quite fascinating actually!
These classes did so much for me as a dancer, as I now see so differently the way that I approach training and warming up the body, as well as the way in which I move and improvise as a dancer. I have realised how much I appreciate to have the mind stimulated as I move, as this creates much more of a challenge than just remembering the steps. I feel that this has enabled me to incorporate many new ways of playing with movement and finding different levels of energy to use for different parts of choreography, even in the same piece. It has given me a way of thinking of dance, which I feel is on a completely different level. It’s quite a surprise to me that I could discover this after dancing for so many years – I began to dance when I was four years old. It’s now fun in a new way to approach my work everyday. On the other hand, I also realised that as any dance technique it has its disadvantages and in my opinion, it does lack a few ingredients that I as a professional would need to work a full day after. I suppose that for the company there it works, and for his choreography, which they do mainly, it is ideal. I think that used as a tool, and used in corporation with other techniques, “GAGA” can be extremely helpful.
Being in Israel was a whole experience in itself, and as it was during the time when the war began in the Gaza Strip, of course it was quite a unique situation, and not probably very ideal. To be there as a tourist and venture out to restaurants etc felt rather strange, and I can say that it made me feel guilty knowing what was happening only fifty kilometres away. It is surreal to be there in Tel Aviv, and to see people continuing with their lives and wondering what they are feeling and thinking. As I was told, the people have grown up with this being a part of their lives, so for them it is a part of the way things are. Having watched a few dance performances in Tel Aviv, and having been amazed at the depth and high quality of the dancers and artists there, I can only think that this all contributes to their outlook on life, and their expression through their art. Such a small country responsible for some of the best dancers in the world, and in my opinion some of the most interesting and innovative choreographers and dance styles. It is intriguing to me.
I thought that the Israeli people were friendly, warm and so interested in me, and my interest in their country. They are so proud of their heritage and of their art in particular. It is a pleasure to see how people can take such pride in it, because it is of the highest level. I felt welcomed and at home, and found Tel Aviv to be a multi-cultural and down-to-earth city with such a distinct charm and atmosphere not found in many places.
I feel that this experience enriched my life in many ways. Having been there at this tough time for the country, meeting dancers and artists and exploring their ways of thinking and outlooks on life. I appreciate so much having been given this opportunity to go there and experience all this. Coming from South Africa, it is almost unheard for me that the arts are given such emphasis and importance in these times.
As this was just a taste, I hope that I will return soon to continue my “GAGA” exploration!
The Susanne Delal Center where the Batsheva Dance Company is based.
Tel Aviv.