{"id":17985,"date":"2026-06-17T14:55:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T14:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/?p=17985"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:07:20","slug":"lucas-letter-to-anton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.cullberg.com\/en\/lucas-letter-to-anton\/","title":{"rendered":"Luca’s letter to Anton"},"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 dancer Luca Seixas to apprentice dancer Anton Skaaning Thomsen. <\/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 Anton,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are reaching the brightest days in Stockholm. It feels like an inspiring end to the season, with open skies and sunny hearts. Are you also picking flowers along the way home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our dear colleague, Eleanor, wrote me a beautiful letter, asking how I navigate through our new creative process with Faye Driscoll. I will try to answer her here, and give you something to reflect on too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot to share about technicality, relationality, concept, physicality, attention skills\u2026. and the many valuable discoveries that happen by chance. What to pick?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key consideration for me is sensing when to commit to the choreographer\u2019s directions, when to be stimulated by my colleagues, and when to suggest another track. To hold this, I try to cultivate a sense of inner quietness and slowness. Not assuming things too quickly, not rushing. This inward focus helps me better understand what my own contribution to the process can be, and recognize when to take space and when to give space. I value that we are a big-hearted group working so closely together, with generosity as an important ingredient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This creation is also reshaping how I process movement material. I find myself needing to access detailed imagined scenarios: impacts, collisions, deep human experiences\u2026 Ultimately, conditions and forces that affect my body and generate a state or emotion. There are two parallel choreographies happening: one physical, visual, and tangible; the other imaginary and immaterial. I oscillate between them. Even the same point in the choreography can reveal itself differently from one day to another: I might have a clear image forming in mind \u2014 my body ready to pick up a cue from the imaginary \u2014 but then a colleague touches me differently that day, and suddenly, another sensory layer appears, guided by the physical plane instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever happens, my goal is to stay present and honest to that very moment. A sensitive gaze is always crucial. You know, Anton, how this piece is so sculpturally choreographed. Finger details, eye direction. Anyway, I\u2019m not trying to perform a fixed state, but rather access how to really live it, stay open to how it transforms, and invite the viewer to feel with and through me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her letter, Eleanor also made me think about dance as a rich aesthetic experience. Not only visually, but fully sensory. To be embraced, to be touched by the experience. In general, I find it fascinating how the arts reveal our desire to live in a world shaped by beauty, form, rhythm, and style. Not just utility and rationality. Don\u2019t you think that this is a very powerful aspect of dance? Not necessarily that it can change how we think, but how we might feel, experience, and sense?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I found myself trapped when Faye asked me, \u201cLuca, what are you thinking there?\u201d. What I was doing at that point was just immediate, held in the body, and outside the space of thought. I had to quickly make something up so she could logically understand it (let\u2019s keep this between us). But of course, I do understand her. We need to find shared language and common ground to arrive at a concrete work. Things must be imagined, processed, translated, transferred, understood, and eventually materialized. There is always this tension between the openness of the process and the need to shape the work, to give it form. Still, thinking more generally, I keep wondering how deep we can stay in the openness\u2026 if we can feel, be affected and transformed, without turning everything into rational thought.
I guess I\u2019m arriving to my reflection for you, Anton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder how far dance can remain subjective and ambiguous, not necessarily tied to a purpose, though I understand how challenging that is. We are living in a noisy and unstable global context. Creating artworks that respond to current events is relevant and, in many ways, expected. We are, of course, also a sensitive community, longing for awareness and immediate change. It feels harder to explore subjectivity in this eroding landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, I find it unfortunate if our artistic value is measured through its usefulness. The ability to make people think, debate, and intellectualize embodied knowledge. I wonder if this might sometimes distance us from feeling with and through one another, and if feeling-through could be an even stronger tool for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, Anton, I\u2019m curious how you see dance holding space today. Does it need to act? Do movement and form need to be logically understood in order to serve a clear purpose? I\u2019m not sure\u2026There\u2019s something about the flowers\u2026 how they transform the space and how I feel\u2026 so I just keep bringing them home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for receiving all this. 
I wish you a blue summer, and all the best with your new start in Norway, dearest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warmly,
Luca<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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