Welcome to BACK2BACK 2023

Thank you for joining us for this evening’s performances by ilDance. BACK2BACK is a Swedish tour featuring an evening of two multidisciplinary dance works by our directors and choreographers Israel Aloni & Lee Brummer.

Schism

In Schism Aloni and the cast explore our conceptual acceptance of the limits of existence and how such acceptance affects our perception of the world.

Schism deals with the notion of borders and how they impact the conceptualisation of the world within the hu-WO-man experience. As a gender-fluid individual who is also diasporic-nomadic Jew, Aloni takes on the challenge to describe the world by alternative means.

Schism takes on the challenge of describing the world around us by alternative means - the blurred boundaries between citizenship and prison, between desire and obsession, between reason and madness, between us and them? The performance takes place in an intimate setup in which the boundary between the audience and performers are defused.

Choreographer’s notes by Israel Aloni

A significant inspiration to both the concept development and the methodologies which resulted in the making of Schism are rooted in the philosophical accounts of Rosi Braidotti - particularly her work on posthuman ecologies, and that of Achille Mbembe - particularly his work on the notion of borderless world. I identify as a fluid being and in my experience fluidity is evident in and vital to many, if not all, aspects of my being. This includes my gender identity, my chronological identity (how old I feel) my national identity (which nation I feel most affiliated with) my geographical identity (which place I feel most related to) my cultural identity (which culture I feel has most impact on the way I experience life) and so on. Therefore, I have been drawn to the notion of borderlessness - a state or a reality in which there are no borders. Can that be?

From the start, the creation process of Schism posed many fundamental questions: how can one bring something, or anything for that matter, into existence without somehow describing the limits of that very thing? Can we imagine anything without somehow imagining what it is not? And so, what describes the point-zone-way in which one thing stops being itself and starts being something else?

Through the incredibly stimulating collaboration during this process with Lærke, Smadar and MINQ as well as with Siri, Stina and Aida, we arrived at the realisation of our shared desire to address the notion of borders in ways that all hu-WO-man beings can relate to. This realisation led us to delve into the very experience of body, which relates strongly and directly to my movement-choreography practice, The I.Aloni Experience, in which I research what I call Corporeal Consciousness - experiencing the world through the subjective experience of what we perceive to be our body.

We all have some kind of presence in the physical realm - a body. Where does one body end and another body begins? What happens with the skin cells that we shed? What happens with the sweat which evaporates off the skin? What happens with our tears? And the air we exhale? Are all of these also “our body”?

Choreography: Israel Aloni & cast

Cast: Smadar Goshen, Lærke Appelon, MINQ, Israel Aloni

Artists involved in the creative process: Siri Elmqvist, Stina Stange Thue Tobiasen & Aida Nadeem

Concept: Israel Aloni

Soundtrack: MINQ

Costume design: Linnea Bågander

Light design: Johan Bjellsäter

Residency partners: EIMA Mallorca, Riksteatern, Estúdios Victor Córdon (Lisbon), Himherandit (Aarhus), Regionteater Väst Borås, Vitlycke Centre for Performing Arts.

Research process partners: Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg.

Something to do, someone to love, something to look forward to

A multidisciplinary work which advances conversions of movement and text mediation in a performance context. Lee Brummer, together with the cast develops a unique and brave language which utilises particular and articulated movements with spoken text. Both are equally important for the creation of the dramatic content of the piece. The piece sits on the exciting border between contemporary dance and physical theatre and presents a new threshold of possibilities as the two mediums intertwine.

Gordon Livingstone M.D. writes: The three components of happiness are something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to.

Based on an interview of one woman's life story, Brummer and the performers tell the personal tale about the fight for a better future and what one individual went through to find it. The story includes her search for safety and health, fighting for her family and for herself in a new context, while constantly having to prove her worth and gain trust over and over again. This is a story about the somethings to do, the someones to love and the things there are yet to look forward to.

The spoken text delivered in the work (script based on the original interview with Teuta) is in English.

Choreography: Lee Brummer & Cast

Cast: Anoushka Jago, Naomi Kats, Siri Elmqvist and Lee Brummer

Concept, script writing and direction: Lee Brummer

Direction assistance and dramaturgy: Rudina Hatipi

Original Soundtrack: Sascha Budimski

Costume design: Linnea Bågander

Light design: Johan Bjellsäter

Residency partners: DansPlats Skog, Estrad Norr with the support of the International Dance Program/The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Vitlycke Centre for Performing Arts.

Choreographer’s notes - Lee Brummer

The story of how this work came about is a long and winding tale, I will try to be short.

It started in December 2018 in a first stage research and development process. Back then the work was based on a book called “Too soon old, Too late smart” by Gordon Livingstone. Amongst other things it speaks of the pursuit of happiness reckoning that the three components for that are: Something to do, Someone to love and Something to look forward to. The creation process was always going to include a research of mine about the meeting of my 2 passions, text and movement and how they co-exist.

Skipping ahead- it’s 2020 covid came into our lives which postponed the 2020 final development and premiere of the work numerous times… Early 2022 When working towards this development, I acknowledged that so much had changed in the past four years and many aspects of my original idea didn’t feel relevant anymore.

I decided to stay with the title but wanted to draw from peoples real life experiences. My plan was to interview individuals and hear about their somethings to do, someones to love and somethings to look forward to. It felt like something I (and maybe we all ?) needed after the 2 years that had passed.

My first interview was with Teuta, the mother of a close friend of mine. I knew little bits about different pieces of her life and so in the interview I asked her one question: “what is your story?” ready to hear about it all in her own words. We sat for a total of 4 hours and and I recorded it all. I left her home knowing that her story can not just be a small part of something bigger. In itself It is too big and too important and It’s a story that needs to be heard.

Teuta’s daughter, Rudina, was a part of our process, supporting me with the script editing and dramaturgy and supporting the dancers with the work on the text, the work is what it is much because of her support and dedication to this process.

This work is here to tell the story of a woman I feel is so very inspiring. For all the women, all the parents, all the people who have had to and continue to have to fight for their family and for their basic rights. May we all have some Teuta in us.

I was blessed to work with four performers who have been so brave and willing to try things they never have before and were willing to fall and try again because they too believed in the importance of sharing this story in the best way we can. Jennifer, Anoushka, Naomi and Siri I thank you for your dedication, willingness, depth and courage and for your trust in me. My cup runneth over.

BACK2BACK Credits and Acknowledgements

Technician on tour: Simmel Åslund

Projects like BACK2BACK are realised through large orchestration of many tasks and responsibilities. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to ilDance’s team, Hanna Magdalena Gödl and Chris O’Reilly who work passionately to make things happen. We would like to also thank Andrea Olander, Thelusa Studio, David Coyle, Joshua Franklin, Hedda Axelsson and Nikola Stankovic who did their share behind the scene to make this project come to life. Also, we would like to extend our gratitudes to the incredible collaboration and dedication of the many individuals who are working for and with the many organisations with whom we collaborated in the process of making BACK2BACK happen. This is a great opportunity to also express how utterly honoured we are to work with the performers Lærke, Siri, Jennifer, MINQ, Smadar, Anoushka and Naomi who make these two new works what they are.

Making art which is contemporary both in its content and the context in which it comes to life is something that we are truly passionate about and hope to continue doing. We deeply cherish the connections with the communities and the public that we are able to interact with and we thank you all for being part of our journey and allowing us to be part of yours.

Thank you, Lee and Israel.