efva lilja

I first encountered the remarkable Swedish choreographer Efva Lilja through her books Dance, For Better For Worse (2004) and Words on Dance (2003). But I’d never met her in person until late last year on a bloody freezing day in Leeds at Error and Creativity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. She gave a keynote that day and I made a few very rough notes which I’ve included below. The notes give a sense of the breadth of her thinking and ideas, but not any sense of her drive, presence and beautiful playfulness.

Image from http://www.culturalentrepreneur.se/

• “I am what I do not know, I am what I lack”
• “technologies of listening”
• “knowledge generation” in Europe
• what’s at stake?
• the values: what we value
• can’t force the outcome
• hypothetical questions
• “question of cliches is an urgent one”
• “and question of contention is as well”
• “how to create new demands on institutions and the academy”
• training: reduces the dancer to a body
• “ability to recognise difference has to be trained”

Efva’s website: www.efvalilja.se
Efva on wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efva_Lilja

 

sprawl

Over the summer Melbourne choreographer and dancer Shaun McLeod and I had some time to prepare a scratch performance for the Dance and Somatic Practices Conference at Coventry University.

Here’s a video of the performance (recorded by Carol Breen).

 

andrée

Last Wednesday the esteemed dance anthropologist Andrée Grau died suddenly. She had an inquisitive, sharp and beautiful mind, was quick witted and profoundly inspiring to her students.

Here’s a video of Andrée from 2011 talking about dance anthropology. In it she suggests that “to dance is a social duty”.

Rest and dance easily Andrée – your intellect, compassion, and beautiful wrestling with ideas will remain. Of course I’ll miss our bloody-minded arguments, but know that I will do my best to remember my social duty as a dancer.