Everything can become a dance and everyone is a dancer. The core of improvisation is presence and surrendering to the unknown. Instant composition is something were you practice skills in making choices, receiving impulses, timing, use of space, rhythm and musicality. Instant composition creates possibilities for different kind of artistic choices than a set choreography would do. In this nutritious space all people; regardless bodies and background can meet and co-create.
For example:
For whom?
Groups of people with various backgrounds and bodies, functional differences or/and age.
This unique documentary captures everyday life on four islands in the Archipelago. Islanders collaborate with a choreographer to create dances inspired by their connection to their surroundings. How does a place become a part of who we are?
Film premiere 14.7 at 7 pm
Screening followed by a panel discussion
Location: Archipelago center Korpoström, Korpoströmsvägen 832, 21720 Korpoström, Finland
Directing, cinematography and editing Rabbe Sandström
Choreography, production and art direction ElinMaria Sydänvirta
Original music for the dances Charles Quevillon
Executive producer Tuuli Toivola, Skärgårdscentrum Korpoström
Participating Anna-Greta Sandell, Diana Kadem, Joel Simberg, Roosa Virkkula
The film results from a cross-disciplinary collaboration between a choreographer and a documentary filmmaker who embraced an open, curious process of mutual influence. Set against the unique visual and auditory backdrop of the Archipelago, the film features dances created by its island residents, each one shaped by their personal connection to their surroundings. It celebrates the individuality and nuanced expressions of each person, regardless of their dance background. The film beautifully captures the transformative journey of turning one’s relationship with a place into dance.
Created with support from the Center for Art Promotion/Taike and Culture in sparsely populated areas, the Archipelago’s Unesco Biosphere Reserve and Archipelago Center Korpoström.
I’m not interested in how people move; I’m interested in what makes them move.” -Pina Bausch
Moving Heart’s values draw on inclusiveness; where people with different qualities and abilities can co-create together in equal conditions and opportunities. Each individual can feel that they participates in the same common goal, being directly involved in the creation process in equal conditions, regardless of their characteristics.
We are drawn to questions such as “When does movement and artistic creation become meaning-making for all? When does a movement become poetry? What makes you curious and interested in your own movement and in other peoples movement? What is dance and when do we feel that we are dancing? What could be a state of dancing thinking? How do we experience a common artistic goal despite differences?
We are curious about how artistic processes and the creation of dance can take place outside the established scene of the already initiated audience with special interest in dance or/and professionals. We believe that there is a purpose for contemporary art and dance to not just be for a smaller group of established artists or only within academic walls. We want to make artistic processes accessible to a wide variety of people.
With our broad background to bring dance to a wide range of different spaces and people one of our main-focus is to bring the social purpose and community-values of equality and everyone’s unique and natural imprint to be an artist, no matter background, education or experience.
“The body is living art. Your movement through time and space is art. A painter has brushes. You have your body.” -Anna Halprin
ElinMaria and Gabriel has engaged in a variate of community dance projects.
The film Imprint is a portrait of five people who participated in the Community Dance project När Vi Dansar (When We Dance). The project was implemented with the support of Dans i Västerbotten and under the artistic direction of dancers and project leaders ElinMaria Sydänvirta, Gabriel Sydänvirta and in close collaboration with dancer and filmmaker Emelie Boman.
Participants in the dance workshops had not met before and none of them had any previous experience of working with dance professionally. They got to know each other through an intimate process with their memories; through conversation, but most of all with the body.
Each participant chose an event that they have been through, or are currently experiencing, that has changed their lives. With the support of the choreographers, they were given tools to create their own movements and expressions based on their chosen event. By letting five people portray life-changing events, we want to move away from the conventional documentary narrative and let movement take over where words are not enough. With their different ages, life experiences and backgrounds, they have all gone through something that changed them and their lives. Despite the hardships they went through, they have found their strength. We want to invite the audience to get to know them and be inspired by that strength. Their path from ashes to a newfound inner fire. The film is so much more than just a film and this is something we believe will be felt by the viewer.