COVID-19 Reflections as a Dance Artist
What have you learned from your experiences the last months?
Being in
general mostly alone and with the nearest family during this pandemic, me and
my artistry during this time has become about how to integrate and fully merge who
I am with the art that I do; in order to reclaim and revaluate what my purpose
and core values are as a dance artist. Finding life and the connection with
art, my body and nature inherently interconnected. Which for me during this
time became even more pronounced. Processing processes and daily routines and
how they affect my day. Realising how the normalised views on productivity and
success has affected me and how I live, and where those traces and relations
fail to serve me greatness. And how as a person and dance artist the kindest
most generous thing I can do to is to serve myself with a way of life that can
support my greatness. Trying to grasp the quality over the quantity of life and
art. Finding ways to treasure that small timid hello from a stranger crossing
paths on my evening walk in the forest. Brewing myself a small cup of coffee
and going out in the sunrise in the morning, hearing all the birds waking up
with their tweets. How the moments of my solitude have the potential to filter
in through the rare new meetings I have. Bringing with me into this “new
normal”, how my experiences and self-realisations can nurture and support all future
gatherings in order to make them truly meaningful.
Who or what have kept you going during the corona-limitations?
Whilst being in Sweden during these couple of months we haven’t had a complete
lockdown, instead the citizens have had the ultimate responsibilities of following
to the societal rules. Fortunately, because of this it meant that I and my
college, Bar Groisman (Sababa Co.) were allowed to start and follow through
with our planned residency with the new solo-work “Chameleon Life” in
July-August in Lund, with support from “Lunds Dans och Musikal Gymnasium. A
three-week residency with two other groups of movement researchers. We had
access to our own separate studio 24/7 for the three weeks of research and even
a small corona-adjusted performance outside. This made me realise how fortunate
and grateful I was to still be able to carry on with my practice in a time of
such uncertainties and regulations. To sum it all up, we managed to create our
own small universe, in the mist of all of chaos. Within the parameters of our
research and the mini-community it was us and the rest of the world. The
research and boost of spending so much artistic time and to just share a studio
with others after months away from it, was heavenly and something that kept me
going.
In what way have your pandemic changed your view about the role of dance
This spring I also had the possibility of with the corona-limitations to
substitute teach sometimes, since most of the schools in Sweden tried to stayed
open. Which meant that most of even the practical dance educations had to go on
somehow. For this to be safe and secure enough, everyone ventured outdoors. It
was a refreshing and sometimes frustrating experience to be governed fully by
the weather and the outside surroundings in finding ways to adapt to continue
on training within a normal morning-class, as if it should have been in a
studio. Finding ways to put up dance flooring that was safe. How to use a rail
on a bridge in a park as a barre for ballet exercises. How to manage when the
sun made the dance-mat so hot that it almost burned your skin when doing floor-exercises.
The thing I loved about it most however was how the dance practice blended so
beautifully with society. One day I sat and observed the students and found the
mix of practitioners within the park lovely. Dancers rehearsing, elders
exercising, sword fighters and schoolkids practising their fitness. It was a
perfect portrayal of what the public space can offer us. How dance, art and
moving the body can re-imagine and find multiple purposes of how we see and use
public space. It felt like this pandemic shifted the perception and view on
what a public space can offer us. It does not just have a singular purpose; it has
a multitude of functions. And the role of dance, is to amongst a lot of things
to support that.
For more inspiration follow: @matildabjarum on Instagram
To see a trailer from the creation and corona-regulated performance of "Chameleon Life": https://vimeo.com/464150055
Original Article: https://www.scottishdancetheatre.com/news/latest-news/dance-artist-profile---matilda-bjrum
