\u201cI\u2019m delighted to be back with Cullberg Ballet, this time as a choreographer, to work with the artists who make up the company. One of my sources of inspiration is the writer David Foster Wallace. I read a quote by him just after being asked to work on The Strindberg Project. \u2018To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.\u2019 It made me start to think about Strindberg as an artist and an icon. How are artists turned into icons, and how does that affect the way we experience their art? That will be my starting point,\u201d says Tilman O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n
Director Melanie Mederlind is working with dancers for the first time ever, but she had no doubts when the company\u2019s artistic director Anna Grip asked her to work on the project last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has always been my dream to work with dancers. I feel honoured. The Cullberg Ballet is a context in which I am a stranger and at the same time at home, considering the company\u2019s tradition of dance theatre. I have great respect for dance and am inspired by its proximity to contemporary art,\u201d says director Melanie Mederlind.<\/p>\n
2012 is the hundredth anniversary of August Strindberg\u2019s death and the year will see a number of events in Sweden and abroad based on Strindberg\u2019s works in different cultural spheres.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the final years of his life, Strindberg largely abandoned literature and dedicated himself to linguistics.\u00a0 He tried to learn Chinese and wrote that as the Chinese were coming, it was time to learn their language. Today, a hundred years later, his words seem almost prophetic,\u201d Melanie Mederlind continues. \u201cThe performance will be based on Strindberg\u2019s linguistic texts and will be a playful and stylised language lesson. I want to take in the different linguistic backgrounds of the dancers and create an ensemble piece out of language, associations and images.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tilman O\u2019Donnell<\/strong> Melanie Mederlind<\/strong> New work by Tilman O\u2019Donnell New work by Melanie Mederlind
\nTilman O\u2019Donnell is a dancer and choreographer born in 1981. He grew up in the US and trained at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada. He has previously danced with The G\u00f6teborg Ballet, Staatstheater Saarbr\u00fccken and the Cullberg Ballet. Since 2007 he has been dancing with The Forsythe Company in Frankfurt. He made his debut as a choreographer in 2002 and has been awarded first prize in several international choreography competitions together with dancer and choreographer Shintaro Oue. In 2005 he was named \u201cDancer to watch\u201d and \u201cChoreographer to watch\u201d by the leading European dance magazine Ballet Tanz. He made his Swedish debut as a choreographer in spring 2010 with the acclaimed work This is for The G\u00f6teborg Ballet.<\/p>\n
\nDirector Melanie Mederlind, born in 1972, graduated from the directors\u2019 course at\u00a0 the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2004. This is the first time she has created a work for dancers. She started working at Riksteatern in 2004 where she directed five productions, the most recent being Innocence by Dea Loher. She has made a name for herself as a director of primarily German contemporary drama and has introduced several German dramatists to the Swedish stage. She directed Elfriede Jelinek\u2019s Swedish premiere. She was nominated for a Hedda Award in 2008 for best direction for her production Ulrike Maria Stuart at Norway\u2019s National Theatre in Oslo. Her productions have been invited to festivals in Norway and Finland and most recently to the Swedish Theatre Biennial in 2011. Last spring she directed Saint Joan of the Stockyards by Bertolt Brecht at Folkteatern in Gothenburg, where she is currently artist in residence.<\/p>\n
\nChoreography: Tilman O\u2019Donnell
\nCostume: Tilman O\u2019Donnell
\nLighting design: Thomas Zamolo
\nSound design: M\u00e5rten Ihre
\nDancers: Agnieszka Dlugoszewska, Mirko Guido, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, Gesine Moog, Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Adam Sch\u00fctt, Daniel Sj\u00f6kvist and Patricia V\u00e1zquez<\/p>\n
\nDirection and set: Melanie Mederlind
\nMusic: Vivaldi, Beethoven and others.
\nCostume: Ulrika van Gelder
\nLighting design: Peter Lundin
\nSound design: M\u00e5rten Ihre
\nDramaturgy: Marc Matthiesen
\nDancers: Alexandra Campbell, Johanna Lindh, \u00c5sa Lundvik Gustafson, Andrea Martini, Shumpei Nemoto, Victoria Roberts, Csongor Szab\u00f3 and Krist\u00f3f V\u00e1rnagy<\/p>\n