Andersson Dance

Post-show discussion! After the performance on 13th November, Katalin Lőrinc, dancer, journalist will talk to the artists. Everybody is welcome!
 

Think of dance as cosmology or of Newton and Einstein, or the curving of time and space. Think of energy and geometrical precision and in the middle of all of this, a myriad of small tales, movement and the details of human experiences. This all makes for pure, perfectionist dance.
 

Örjan Andersson was born 1964 in Eslöv, southern Sweden Örjan Andersson received his education at Balettakademien in Stockholm. He began his career as a dancer at Östgötabaletten in Norrköping where he worked with amongst other Birgit Cullberg, Mats Ek and Jiri Kylian. He then left Sweden to with Batsheva Dance Company (artistic leader Ohad Naharin) in Tel Aviv, Israel, where he danced in works by Ohad Naharin, Angelin Preljocaj, Jiri Kylian, Herve Robbe and Mark Morris. Örjan Andersson returned to Sweden permanently in 1993, creating his first own pieces whilst working with amongst others Per Jonsson (Sweden) and Ina Christel Johansson (Norway). Örjan Andersson created his the first work, Nemo saltat sobrius (1992) during his period in Israel.
1996 started he his own company, Andersson Dance Company, now entitled Andersson Dance, based in Stockholm. The project company tours nationally and internationally. In 1996 Örjan Andersson received his first commission, by the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm. He has since been commissioned by a majority of the leading dance companies in Europe whilst creating a large body of work for his own company, touring in Sweden, Italy, South Korea, Germany and Great Britain.
Örjan Andersson has continually taught at the University College of Dance, the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre, Danscentrum and Balettakademien in Stockholm, giving courses in choreography, interpretation as well as giving class.
 

’Like a shaman, a clown or a child with stubbornly inquisitive eyes Örjan Andersson moves beyond all given patterns. It is insane and magically beautiful. An explosion of dance and absolutely worth seeing.’ (Anna Ångström, Svenska Dagbladet, Nov. 11th 2006.)
 

’Mention Örjan Andersson plus Jens Sethzman (set and light) and you are always certain of what is going to happen. All the same you becomre invariably surprised. So also concerning “Ready to explode”, in which these two magicians – a sort of modern renaissance master – delightfully enchants the audience with its respect for the beauty of simplicity and the ingeniously calculated. ’(Cecilia Olsson, Dagens Nyheter, Nov. 11th 2006.)
 

When Örjan Andersson's five dancers enter the Main Stage at Dansens Hus it is not a question of sitting in the auditorium trying to figure out what things means or which metaphor the people up there are exploring. Dance is what interests this choreographer. Here the dance itself is put on stage, full of whims, dense and equilibristic, in some parts to an extent I’ve never seen before. And all this to a soundscape where staccato, signals of warning and cadenced beats alternates with rap and elegiac piano music.
The music buddles over the stage as waves, at once stepping up just to slow down again until the sole sound of naked feet towards the floor is the only thing that can be heard. Silence is something this choreographer can handle. Over the floor in the white rooms hovers a wide circle, like the circulations around Saturn or traces of the substances which is flung around the black holes of the universe, In Jens Sethzman's saga like light design the room moves, shifting tone and colours. In a landscape of grey tones Annika Hyvärinen dances a superbly beautiful solo which is female only in its manor of showing a body which is at once left to the loneliness as well as the total freedom.
The dancers are exceptional. Norwegian Sverre Magnus Heidenberg, Swedish Dan Johansson, the Israeli dancers Asher Lev and Finish Hyvärinen meets, building bridges with their bodies, climbing, pirouetting, stepping around and almost touching each other in something which resembles a welcoming ceremony. When it seems like hands, arms, yes, as if the whole body has a life of it’s own it means Michael Getman, also from Israel, has entered the stage. Like a shaman, a clown or a child with stubbornly inquisitive eyes he moves beyond all given patterns. It is insane and magically beautiful. An explosion of dance and absolutely worth seeing. (Tove Ellefsen Lysander)
 

Choreography: Örjan ANDERSSON
Dancers:
Sverre M. HEIDENBERG, Annika HYVÄRINEN, Dan JOHANSSON, Asher LEV, Eldad Ben SASSON
Set and lighting design: Jens SETHZMAN
Costumes: Nina SANDSTRÖM
Music: Keith FULLERTON WHITMAN
 

www.anderssondance.com/ENG/verk/ready-to-explode/index.html
www.loco-motion.se
 

With the support of:
National Council Of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Department of Stockholm