Three Local LEAP Meetings have been organised in Stockholm this Spring. One on Sunday, March 29; one on Saturday, April 11; and the last (also) on Saturday, April 25, 2015. All three meetings were hosted by Danscentrum Stockholm, to whom I express my deepest gratitude.
During my preparation for these meetings I have noticed that even though the interest expressed in LEAP activities was high, the attending potential was revealed to be low. This could have been due to a variety of factors: the most obvious being that Spring was finally arriving to the city. (The effect that the arrival of Spring has on residents of the North is quite special.) The low attending potential might have also been caused by the sudden overbearing amount of happenings that were, along-side Spring, storming through Stockholm's dance scene.
After I started receiving one concerned excuse after another, I decided to organise myself and these meetings so as to be able to share the information I was interested in sharing regardless of the attendance rate revealed at the actual meeting point. Having prepared myself like so, I also prepared so I would always be ready and have enought time to address any interests other than my own that would enter the room.
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To each of the meetings I invited one artist∞teacher∞student that I was to interview about their work, focusing my questions towards two interests: (1) where does the drive of the specific person's work come from, what is it's origin? whare are it's origins?; (2) how does the work articulate itself today, what are it's parameters and how are they being communicated?
A third interest exists on my side. I am eager to get insight into the relatedness of intimate interests and desires to public systems of organisation. I am eager to get insight into the following: (3) what specific circumstances enable one to discover, then relate their intimate interests to a socio-political environment?; and (3.1) can a study of one example, in this case, provide for information that can be valuable at a larger scale?
The interviewes were going to be conducted before a live audience, or not. There was time left in the planing after the interview, and it was to be organised according to the needs of those attending, and according to LEAP's official to-do list.
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And so it happened that on March 29th I interviewed Ulrika Berg. On April 11th I interviewed Manon Duquesnay. And on April 25th I interviewed Anna Grip.
Over the course of three interviews I collected abour 10 hours of audio recording which I plan to transcribe during the month of August and then write into a series of essay-formed interviews that are to be published on IDOCDE's website, and on my personal blog.
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Shortly about the content of the interviews:
The interviews look at the question of origin by asking each interviewee about their childhood, early stages of family life and their specific coming into dance. I quickly noticed that for each participant dance almost immediately means at least two things - it is an aesthetic experience (a social experience, an interactive, and a physical experience); in the same time as it is, from the very earliest of age, also an experience that valorises their specific "need" to interact with the world in an articulated, sense-oriented way.
How the word "need" is articulated in each of the interviews, and how "sense-oriented" is articulated in each of the interviews - sets the conversation up for later reflection on the present tense. Each interviewee discusses, from their point of view, the environment in which they live in. This includes an annalysis of the socio-political environments within which dance happens.
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I will present some of my findings and thoughts related to the conversations I had with Ulrika Berg, Manon Duquesnay and Anna Grip during my presentation at the IDOCDE Symposium. Specifically, I will focus on the question of establishment of form; and how is it that form comes to make difficult the process of discovering and articulating, then publically sharing intimate interests. I will discuss form within the realm of dance education and artistry; but also within the realm of personhood.
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In my praparing, communicating, conducting and organising Local LEAP Meetings this Spring, I have been in contact with, hosted conversations with, and engaged in an exchange with: Mira Mutka, Stina Nyström, Benno Voorham, Sybrig Dokter, Ulrika Berg, Manon Duquesnay, Anna Grip, Claudia Erixson, Ellen Söderhult, Babis Harall, Manon Santkin, and Samuel Draper.
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The three Local LEAP Meetings this Spring were the last meetings conducted within the project, which means that with them I conclude my administratorial position as Stockholm's Local LEAP Meeting Facilitator. I will, however, consider my work done the moment the last of the essay-interviews is published.
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Looking forward to the Future,
yours devotedly
pavleheidler