Dancer Anna Holmström in Berlin meets saxophone player Erika Lindholm
A dancer and saxophone player meet through movement and music, breathing new energy and inspiration to the town. Through a pop-up performance, the people are once again invited to look up from their phones on their way to work or while buying groceries. To greet a neighbor and experience the magic of human live interactions. The projects creation process takes place outdoors on the concrete in the town squares, next to farmers working on their fields and between the sheep grazing on the mountainside. An opportunity to rewrite what an artists workspace can look like and to integrate art in the daily lives of the people.
For 1000s of years the heart of a town has been the townsquare. This was a place where people could meet and connect, buy food, enjoy festivals and markets, go to church or meet up with friends. Where is the heart of a town located today? Is it still the town square, is it the tourist spot with a view over the magnificent landscape or does it only exist on digital platforms?
In Swedish, the word ”mötet” means ” the meeting” or ” the encounter.” It can refer to a gathering or assembly of people for discussion, collaboration, or other purposes.
Aim
The aim with the project “Mötet” is to create new opportunities for encounters between the local population, professional artists and the surrounding environment.
- How can we get people to once again see each other, dare to meet in the unplanned, exchange a glance, a laugh and a sense of being part of a community?
- How can we reach people that normally wouldn’t go to conventional cultural venues?
- How can we use the possibilities of the countryside to create new formats for rehearsal spaces?
- How can we use improvisation to reflect the surroundings in the moment of acting through music and dance?
Trailer – Mötet
Our story
The project originated from a meeting between saxophone player Erika Lindholm and choreographer and dancer Anna Holmström at the 2022 ”#Taggad” Festival in Hällefors, Sweden. They shared a mutual interest in collaborating, which led to a research residency in the autumn of 2023.
The residency began through digital meetings where the concept of ”meetings” was explored through various life contexts, personal experiences and comparing small town dynamics to larger cities. During the second part of the residency, the focus shifted to a meeting in the real world between 4 artists: Anna and Erika from the professional industry as well as a newly graduated Lotta Asmyhr and local dance enthusiast Saga Immonen. The rehearsals were conducted outside the old train station house in Bredjsö as well as in the dance studio at the Hällefors Cultural School.
Rehearsing outside opened up for new artistic perspectives: the experience of moving through gravel on the ground, the saxophone playing with the natural acoustics, the feeling of being connected to real life – the heating of the sun, the sound of the sheep on their way to the pasture, the wind moving dance and music through space.
The residency resulted in a 15 minute pop-up dance and saxophone performance that was shown during lunchtime in the townsquare in Hällefors. People, dance and music converged in a blend of spontaneity, improvisation, choreography and folk melodies.
Through the pop up performance there were suddenly new factors contributing to the surrounding environment, including cars, work vehicles, passersby of all ages, seated audience members, crows, crosswalks, and sidewalks. Some people glanced without stopping, others paused to watch, and some engaged in conversation or mimicked the movements and sounds.
Through analyzing the research residency it became clear that this performance is depending on the live exchange between artist, audience and surrounding environment. It is these interactions that create the magic.
