{"id":17562,"date":"2026-04-28T14:15:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/mias-brev-till-eleanor\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:14:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:14:28","slug":"mias-brev-till-eleanor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/mias-brev-till-eleanor\/","title":{"rendered":"Mia’s letter to Eleanor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every month someone, often from the company, writes a letter to another person who then picks up the pen and writes to someone else. The letters are often personal and reflect on dance, the wonders and challenges of dance and what it\u2019s like to perform it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter below is written by Mia Larsson, Head of the Dance Department at Riksteatern to Dancer Eleanor Campbell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the letters directly to your inbox every month.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Eleanor,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am writing you a letter, and it feels both ceremonial and unfamiliar. It has been a long time since I last wrote a letter, and in my everyday professional work there is rarely space for this kind of reflection. What is my practice, and what is my approach to work? Harrison\u2019s letter prompted me to think about flexibility, openness, and integrity. He describes flexibility in relation to the audience, the space, and the artistic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, art is life\u2011giving and an essential part of my life. It began with being an audience member, then amateur theatre, followed by a desire to become an actor, before eventually finding my place as a producer. It suited me perfectly! Being involved throughout the entire process, I learned as a producer to trust the process and not to cling too tightly to certain principles \u2014 to have faith in people and in the space we create together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Openness and integrity may sound like opposites, yet integrity is essential \u2014 including the integrity of collective work. Artistic integrity, the vision of the artistic team, and what I believe you dancers refer to as stamina. But also the idea that we contribute to the process by sharing what matters to each of us, regardless of our role, in order to participate, contribute \u2014 simply to do our job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe meet here without diminishing ourselves, but open to being influenced and possibly changed\u201d is a phrase from a project Riksteatern carried out, where ninth\u2011grade students, teacher trainees, and Riksteatern staff co\u2011created a production. It captures well how I see collective work. In my role as Head of Dance, I believe it is crucial that we share common goals, that everyone knows their assignment\/role\/tasks, and that all have the conditions needed to do their best. If this is in place, there is hopefully also room to acknowledge everyone\u2019s needs and wishes \u2014 which of course does not mean they will always be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flexibility and openness are prerequisites for creating the unexpected, though at times this is frightening, as uncertainty is precisely what it is \u2014 uncertain. This is where we have an important role to play: as an institution, to take risks and not underestimate the audience. We must be flexible and adaptable so we do not get stuck in clich\u00e9s or in \u201cthis is how we\u2019ve always done it.\u201d At the same time, we have a crucial responsibility to make visible that art is work \u2014 work created by artists who need time, space, and funding. This can never be negotiated away. No art without artists!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My interest began as an audience member \u2014 the fascination and the feeling in the theatre. It was the seriousness that captivated me when I was young. Today, I see a great deal of performing arts, especially dance, and I continue to be fascinated, though of course I sometimes find it dull or even bad. But rarely uninteresting. How is it for you? How do you absorb impressions from other artists in your work as a dancer? Has your view of dance changed over the years? Can you take something with you into your own work? Might it be a movement, a gesture, or something entirely different? Can a dancer sample? That was many questions in a row, but my main question is this: watching performing arts inspires me in my work and is also a necessity for understanding our field and making informed decisions. What does it mean to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warm regards,
Mia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Harrison’s letter to Mia.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every month someone, often from the company, writes a letter to another person who then picks up the pen and writes to someone else. The letters are often personal and reflect on dance, the wonders and challenges of dance and what it\u2019s like to perform it. The letter below is written by Mia Larsson, Head […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":17559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-okategoriserat"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17562"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17571,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions\/17571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}