Part of Anna Koch's installation in the Fylkingen foyer

Hi, I’m working on a performance project, which deals with trading movements with as many Swedish choreographers as possible. The intention is to collect movements (à circa 30 seconds; new or old), either directly or through instructions, with the understanding that I, in turn, give something back. I want to plant movements outside of the performance, which can live on in their own ways. If a sufficient number of choreographers pitch in, a network is created by the action, while I also can account for the material received. A big part is about the trade itself, which can happen in various ways. Everything happens on different conditions, as part of the process. The project becomes an attempt to question habitual roles and preserves. It deals with the fascination with how our bodies and our intellects store, how we are immersed with information and how we receive it, how it leaves imprints or disappears. A great part of it deals with how we meet and how we communicate. On stage I will then show the material bit by bit, in the order I received it; perhaps once in silence with possible comments on where, when and how the material was traded, and then with the music. There will also be an installation in place in the foyer, laying the network bare, for the audience to understand and take part in the process. The material is displayed anonymously, since I sincerely want the action/movement to be in the center of attention. I wonder if you’d wish to take part? Would you see fit to meet and exchange material? Or write instructions? Do you want to pledge something bearing your signature? What is a signature? What is it to trade movements? What movement? Myself, I find it exciting, since we otherwise maybe would never meet or cooperate. How do we interpret each other? Where does the material go? The project is already under way and will continue during summer and fall. The performance will be premiered in November at Fylkingen. Greetings, Anna Koch

Anna Koch, Rock Out & Ida Lundén

Hi and welcome to Transmission – a performance which in a way began already this past summer, with, for instance this movement that I got on the steps in Bofills Bow with the instruction to “pick up a grain of gold!” And this movement I gave away at a coffee shop… and got it back with another movement attached! When a colleague and I shared a melon, I got to hear the story of a performance artist from Hiroshima who in the Sixties dropped a big melon center-stage, letting the sweet smell spread through the theatre… A movement which you can see in about twenty-four minutes I found when I sat on a pier in Bohuslän, getting ready for a meeting in Gothenburg. As I arrived at the meeting, the choreographer said: “Gee, that’s the exact same movement I’m going to give to you!” The costume I’m wearing I bought in a dance store for 1137 Swedish crowns [124 Euro] with shoes and kneepads – with a 10% rebate since I’m in the dance business. Have I forgotten anything? I show all the movements in the order in which I received them. If you wand to know more there are texts in the foyer. Or ask me afterwards! Rock Out (i.e. Henry Moore Selder and Niklas Korsell reinforced by Ida Lundén) I found at a Recycle festival – where I also met the designer Björn Renner who is responsible for flyers and poster. Astrid Stenberg has assisted with room ideas. Shorty Larsson with lighting. Emilie has written [the texts on the walls]. Manne is filming. Gratitude to Printfabriken (for all the printed matter). ELD who has let me use their fantastic locality as a Lab choreographer. Fylkingen for support. Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs for backing. Finally, thanks all colleagues who made this project possible!

One of the reasons for conducting this project was that I speculated around different ways of working, and a wish to try out a completely new procedure, a different kind of process. On the one hand, I wanted to go into the studio and work by myself, on the other hand I wished to create an extroverted project involving other people – and have these course of events merge, at first with a focus on the process, later to bring it into a performance structure. A long-time introspection into the position, possibilities and aim of art in a cultural and social context characterized by a marketing- and production-fixed preoccupation suggestively veiled by claims of pluralism and freedom of communication looking to anaesthetize the individual and the collective into a moldable passivity, constitutes a kind of intellectual background. Alternative ways and different methods of producing art are emerging, in ways making possible audience as well as artist realizations of a deeper kind of creativity. For me, the maybe most important aspect of this project has been to meet an array of Swedish choreographers and their motions. Had I asked foreign choreographers, it would have happened in a different manner, perhaps more conceptually or provoking, but as it is I wanted to test the limits here in Sweden. I have addressed colleagues active within different dance genres not only in Stockholm, but also around the country. For obvious reasons I have not been able to call on all existing choreographers active in Sweden, even if this indeed was my initial aim. I wished to meet with a great scope of choreographers and get in touch with various ways of thinking and reasoning around a particular movement. Along the way I have gained an insight into their ways of working and their attitudes towards their profession, and witnessed the stubbornness required to remain active and work with that which one wants and must, each one in his own way. I have documented all events and initiations to contacts, reactions and approvals, striving for as open an attitude as possible towards the process. I wanted to create the prerequisite for a personal and inquisitive meeting. My suggestion was to trade movements, which obviously allowed for a wide spectrum of interpretations. Through this I wanted to create a network action and account for the material I had gotten in exchange. The collected anonymous material is the discord of the action that has already taken place. The action, the meeting and the joint movement are the central aspects of the work [Transmission]. Where the movements I have offered as a trade end up doesn’t matter so much, since it is my conviction that each movement itself generates movement, even if a totally different one. Last summer I spent five weeks in the studio, chiseling a kind of “movement bank”, an investigation of movements stored in my body. Some days dance emerged that I could sign myself, other days things I could identify from somewhere else. During some meetings I have traded off movements from the movement bank, but adjusted them according to whom I met. I wanted to offer a movement dedicated to the singular meeting. At times I have tried to go against my sensed feeling of the person I met. My colleagues and I have experimented with different ways of giving, and with various ideas of motion. We have given away movements through instructions, through on-the-spot improvisations or through written texts. Possibly it is the feeling of challenge that interests me most: to challenge the perception of limits and preserves. There has been an atmosphere of solemn ritual in the person-to-person meeting of colleagues and also by way of the written word; a meeting which has made us show a piece of ourselves through that which we have in common; the movement. Transmission becomes a study of communication, a work dealing with different kinds of movements. It is also a celebration of the participants and of people who strive with listening to themselves and not to the power of profit.

Anna Koch flying through the space-time continuum
in Transmission

I want to give you something to work with. Then we can meet again. I know I exercise power, but what can I do? Did you receive the new Dance Magazine? Why don’t they mention anything about this? I suppose you’ve never seen anything I’ve done. This is a dream situation that I find myself in. Those who do what I do usually do not want to remain in Sweden. Bring hardy clothes, ok? What a fun idea I like odd projects. That’s why I participate. Where are the mentors and those who should support us young? I long for a new stage to occupy. It is important to preserve the old while also creating something new. Is this something you’ve been paid for? No, I don’t experience envy. I am happy if things go well for others. No matter how much a person wants something, I wouldn’t want to give anything that lacked quality. I’m inspired by the natural cycles. Artistry has to have time to mature. Culture is politically very corrupt. Why don’t we go for a cup of coffee instead. You see, I got an idea. A lack of history is emerging. I feel excluded from the rest of the dance world. I teach, but also work with a piece. I couldn’t survive if I couldn’t keep working with dance. I want to be free. That is the most important thing, and to work with memories and all that’s been stored. I really don’t have anything in store to offer. I don’t want to be taken for granted, not feel pressured, be able to create different kinds of works every time, and create when I feel concerned. Why does everything have to be commercially viable?

Oh, it’s anonymous, that changes things. How will you handle the material? Have we traded now? Why must the dance world here at home be so limited? People should travel some. It’s a freedom to be allowed to work like this. I lie down here on the floor to think a little about what I want to give. I have to travel to keep knowledge and inspiration alive. Once I was accused of creating pornographic dance. One year you’re artistically untalented, but after a few years you may be considered talented again. Everybody’s talking behind each other’s backs. I’d like to keep doing this. I feel it’s my thing. For me, movement is an extension of thought. It’s pretty tight between the older and the younger generation. I want to give something that I like myself. How strange, I was going to give you a similar movement.

You can do anything; stand on your head in a pool of pea – but it’s already been done. We’re valued only through reviews; who else sits around evaluating? How nice to get to meet. Have you worked on social security to make ends meet? I really feel that I’ve found my groove to work through. That’s where I feel free and creative. What I’m occupied with now is what I really want to do. I have no inspiration here. I’m really more interested in theater than in dance. I’m going to give you this, because I suppose no one else will.

On the walls one could also find typed sheets with score or instructions, like the following one. It is called Choreographic Sequence for circa 40 seconds from X to Anna Koch:

Directions: Follow the instructions below. Some words are marked “ “, which means that they are open for your own interpretation. Find a common tendency in your interpretation of the words, which you apply to all the words (i.e., all events look different, but are connected by your choice of interpretation; for example sensing, sharp etcetera). Let these events become distinguished from the rest of the material. As you will notice there are several words in the description, which are not objective. In the case that they are not marked, try to merge them with the motion materials without distinguishing them. Time indication is approximate. 10-second sequence: Enter straight from the left, and move to a point about one meter off center (the X) of your chosen stage area, with your eyes focused on the place where you will stand. As you reach that point, turn your body with your face facing the front. Let your gaze fall rapidly towards your feet. With your eyes, define a square, 2 x 2 meters, with your point as the back right corner. Let your head follow your gaze clearly. 10-second sequence: “Fall” to the floor and “end up” with your left leg bent under your body, and your right leg out-stretched diagonally to the right, out from your body, your left elbow against the floor and your right palm also against the floor. Let you gaze “happen upon” your left hand, which hangs in the air. Let your left lower arm “fall” towards your right palm so that your left palm “hits” the fingers of your right hand. On impact, shift all weight over on your right, out-stretched leg, and “pull” yourself up to the right. Let your gaze be focused to the left. Let your right and left arm “follow” your body, do not formulate, let all that happens happen. Get yourself up, and “end up” on one foot, continue up on your toes. Let your left leg fold up against your belly. “Let go” of everything and “get yourself” in a hurry back to the back left corner of your fictive square. Let your gaze remain focused to the left. 15-second sequence: “Walk” at an “even”, “quick” pace from the back left corner to the front left corner of your square; then walk diagonally across the square to the right back corner. Remain there for 5 seconds, walk the way backwards until you’re standing in the back left corner. Repeat the whole sequence once very fast, once “very slowly”. In every section, focus your gaze in “the opposite” direction of the direction in which you’re moving. 5-second sequence: Bend down and show “fictitiously” how you erase the outlines of the square. Erase the lines in the order of your choice. Conclude with “erasing” your own fictitious point and “walk off” the floor “backwards” to the place where you entered.

to part 2 of the report