Rehearsal with the orchestra

Benjamin Pope conducting the Royal Court Orchestra (photo by: Gunnlaugur Egilsson)

After having listened to Marcus Fjellström´s own recording of The Nordic Chamber Orchestra, interpitating the score for Degenerator, it was a with a certain feeling of relief that I attended the rehearsal of the Royal Court Orchestra. It is of course a different things to hear music played life and even tough it was the first rehearsal for that cast of musicians it was still a very rewarding listening experience. All the nuances in the music that in the recording otherwise are quite hard to hear came clearly forth in the live rehearsal. at times the music is very delicate and that is precicely what I have been experimenting with in the choreography; dancing that sometimes doesn´t outlive it´s intentions.
The conductor, Benjamin Pope, demonstrated for the orchestra with a profound expression how the dancers movements wilt in coherence with the breathing of the music.


Ylva Helander in a rehearsal.

I later continued the day with a rehearsal for the dancers. I could explaing for their relief that all the tempos of the orchestra had been good to execute the choroegraphy to.

The moment is at hand were as the music and the dance will unite for real.

Second stage rehearsal

Recently I have been asked by many why I choose to write about my creative process for the dancepiece Degenerator here and on the homepage of the Royal Swedish Opera.

It can be, for some, a sensitive thing to share with others something so unfinished or that is still under construction.
My resolution is that just as the programbooklet is not the piece and in the same way this blog is that neither. It started with the idea that I wanted to document the process in some way, only for myself to begin with, but at the same time I thought that sharing with people what happens behind the closed doors of one of the bigger companies in downtown Stockholm, The Royal Opera, would be an exellent idea.


The piece in the process. Jeannette Diaz-Barboza, Gunnlaugur Egilsson och Sandra Gerdin (photo by: Carl Thorborg

It is in my oppinion different to openly share the process in a more abstract dancepiece than for exampel a play or something with a more linear-storybased development in itself.
At the same time I hope it is read with a open mind and that it might create a curiosity for some to come and see the finished product.

Today was the second stage rehearsal for Degenerator. This time the backdrop was up and Martin Säfström, the lighting designer, was there to experiment with different proposals for the lighting.
It is two different things to rehearse in studio or on the stage of the Royal Operahouse. The space is considerably more on the stage wich allows the movements to be danced out more when on stage.

Irina Laurenova in rehearsal (photo by: Carl Thorborg)

We have now reached the ideal situation of all choreographers: To be able to go into the material and work on intentions and stretch all possible boundaries.
One of the costumes is almost finished and was tried on stage today. The design of Behnaz Aram bring an extra elemnet into the pice and I cannot wait to see the bigger picture.
Jeannette Diaz-Barboza, Sara Sällström and Gunnlaugur Egilsson in the photostudio (photo by: Carl Thorborg)

Yesterday the the dancer Jeannette Diaz-Barboza was photographed by Carl Thorborg for a poster for the mixed-bill. We went through the choreography and tried to find movements that can represent the style in still frame. Sara Sällström, hair and makeup-artist, fixed Jeannettes hair so that everything would sat as it should for the photoshoot.

Frasing and Focus

The blog has moved to the homepage of the Royal Opera:

www.operan.se/bloggen

Altough I will continue to blog in English on this blogpage.

Degenerator is for six female dancers from the Royal Swedish Ballet. They are:


Katja Björner

Jeannette Diaz-Barboza

Sandra Gerdin

Ylva Helander

Irina Laurenova

Kristina Oom

There is, in my own oppinion, in the world of dance, theater and opera still lingering remains from an older social structure otherwise obsolete in todays society.

There the director or the choreographer always has the last word.
At least within the institutuion theaters where lack of time never allows for long creative processes.
Therefore I try as a choreographer to involve every dancer as much as I can.
Each an every individual has their own way of taking in the choroegraphy or the visions of teh choroegrapher and thein it is important to understand the differences between each and every artist and to see to their needs.

In Degenerator I have therefore tried to listen as much as I preach.

First Runthrough

Degenerator is starting to manifest itself. Today was the first runthrough. It is starting to look as a whole even though it is far from being complete. I am making an attempt to work on all height levels. That is through standing, en pointe and on the floor. It is physicaly demanding for my dancers but when it is executed well it is as if have a complete freedom to either melt down or float over the ground.

It is with exitement that I watch the piece take form for the first time. I see what sections need more focusing and I now have a stronger sense for the high and low points of the piece or begining and end in
other words.




Benjamin Pope, conductor for Degenerator

The conductor, Benjamin Pope, is now in Stockholm and is following rehearsals. Now the final tempo for the music has to be set, a tempo that works with the dancing, and together we need to find places that can make the communication between the orchestra and the dancers easier.

Behnaz Aram working on a costume with a dancer for Degenerator

In the end of the week the first costume will be as good as ready, Behnaz Aram will come to see if it is all acording to her vision.

Three of the total six women will have grey dresses and the other three have greyish dresses with a pattern faintly visable underneath layers of grey cloth. It is like the memory of beauty now gone.

In the piece I am putting structure and chaotic patterns of movement against each other and Behnaz Aram has taken that with her into the costumes. Dresses that almost sufficate its wearer, or protects them from outside dangers.

This is the second time we collaborate and every time we discuss our ideas it is as if we can complete each other sentences.

I have choosen to illustrate the music with an abstract plot. At the same time I want to create a complet world for myself even if it will in the end be completely different to what any one else might expirience.

That is the strenght in working with such a poetic artform, as I see it: All interpetations are

right.

The first steps

After being getting the comission to create the piece I started to search for music. My first thought was to use the chance to work with the live music of the Royal Court Orchestra here in Stockholm. Dance is an elusive artform, fragile and unsolid. It happens only now and is (for the time being) not the same in documentation or on film. I think it is therefore that it facinates me. It is mu believe that in our post-industrial digitalized society there is a growing need to return to the magic of the live performance right infront of our own eyes. In its pursuit of perfection the dance cannot escape human frailty.

Marcus Fjellström, composer

The choice therefore was Degenerator composed by the young Swedish composer Marcus Fjällström for the Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sundsvall in August 2006. I am facinated by the world that Marcus has created with the music. He himself explained the music with following words in a letter adressed to me in January 2007:

Degenerator is pretty much about falling apart, being broken, wilting away...
In a manner such as a diseased or injured body or a ruin... It is like the ruins of what was a Romantic symphony piece, but it is broken, wilted, in fragments...

I see myself between the two worlds of tradition and progressiveness and it is therefore I have choosen the music Degenerator. The music piece swings between harmony and dissonanc, sounds sometimes familiar but otherwise totally alien to ones ear. For the stage of the Royal Opera I think it is important that there exists a vitality and a reflection of what a younger generation strive for in their creativity.

I have choosen to complement Marcus Fjällströms world. The piece has the same name as the music and is for six female dancers wearing pointshoes.
Something falling apart, a forest, plant or an organism that continues to grow or wilt away. Movements that are awake or asleep, the estetique in the unproportional and the deformed. Classical ballet always strives for perfection but for me perfection is without a soul. Degenerator is an attempt to create a dancepiece that is both perfection and imperfection, classical and contemporary dance, minimalism and maximalism, harmony and dissonance.
These are the thoughts that I ponder now in begining of October while the piece is being born.

In the begining

Ossuarium (performed in 2006, photo by Alexander Kenney)

In November 2006 I got a comission from the director of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Madeleine Onne, to create a short dancepiece for the Royal Swedish Ballet. I had then already created several choreographic workshops for the Royal Swedish ballet and the Cullberg Ballet and done a piece for the Icelandic Dance Company in a collaboration with the Icelandic Art University and the National Theater in Iceland. I was then in the creative process of Ossuarium, a piece that was shown at Rotundan in the Royal Operahouse to George Crumbs amplified string quartet "Black Angels" played live by members of the Royal orchestra with costumes created by Behnaz Aram. Ossuarium was premierd in December 2006 and showcased as an initiative from the marketing department at the Operahouse to create a more expirimental platform for the Royal Ballet at Rotundan, the smaller stage at the Operahouse.

This blogpage is thought as a haven for ideas and contemplations in the midst of the creative process for the dancepiece Degenerator that will be premiered the 9th of November 2007 at the performance "Höstafton med Kungliga baletten" at the Royal Operahouse in Stockholm.



Behnaz Aram, clothing and costume designer, Gunnlaugur Egilsson
and Jeannette Diaz-Barboza in a costumefitting at the Royal Swedish Opera.

I started to sketchout the piece already in June 2007 and now in September it is vaguely outlined. All the ingredients such as the scenography, choreography and costumes are being formed and this time it is again Behnaz Aram that stands for the costumes, Martin Säfström designs the lighting and the music is written by Marcus Fjellström.