MORGANE NICOL
Dance artist
HOW TO DO THINGS WITH ROMANCE - A Prologue
Ellen Söderhult
As a notion romance holds a spectra of feelings such as passion, affinity, affection, tenderness, empathy, compassion and devotion. But romance is also a socio-cultural construction. How to do things with Romance: a prologue is a sporty punk ballet that experiments with romance out of a cultural historical perspective. The love stories and sport movies from Hollywood’s film history which have inspired the work with this piece have been shaped in a male dominated industry where women often have been objectified and represented as bearers of meaning but not makers of meaning. This dance by many is an attempt to propose, perform and speculate in other interpretations of the romantic.
Thinking of romance as portrayed in movies, ballets, music videos, TV-series, it appears as maybe not having as much to do with content, as with a use of effects to create or reinforce stereotypes, norms and produce specific desires and dreams, deeply grounded in consumerism and the idea of ownership. The piece rests on an interest in what could happen if the positive properties of romance were reinterpreted and used to other ends.
Also, how does romance relate to love, or to a less exclusive understanding of the notions such as this one: ”Courtly love does not love the self any more than it loves the whole universe in a celestial or religious way” (Bodies without organs, A thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze och Félix Guattari, 1987). This dance is a throw as in the etymological meaning of dance and ballet – ballein – ballistics – to throw as if to hit. It is a willful throw off balance to lose the meaning of romance and perform it anew. Welcome to something like a riot grrrl influenced sporty punk ballet.
Concept & Choreography Ellen Söderhult
Performed by Hannah Krebs, Lisen Pousette, Oda Brekke, Elise Sjöberg, Lisa Shåman, Ellen Söderhult,
Am Ertl, Morgane Nicol, Stina Ehn, Michelle Persson
Drummers Sarah Kebedech Ziebe, Sara Mouritzen
With the support of Nordisk Kulturfond, Kulturkontakt Nord, Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland,
Ålands Kulturdelegation, Stockholms Stad, Kulturrådet, Danseatelier, Nordens Institut på Åland.
Premiered in November 2016
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