Dear visitor, reader, artist, researcher, and human being,  As I am writing this letter, allowing it to perform the role of an abstract, I am just about to graduate the Masters program in Choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. This MA has for me, among many other things foremost been a commitment and engagement in a two-year-long collective project and research on the never-ending wonder and question of what dance and choreography can be and can do. Throughout these two years, my research has been weaving itself from behind the back and backspaces, into the deepest vulnerability and out through the relationality. From there it has weaved further out and found its way to memories and ghosts, that most often have appeared in the middle of everything and everywhere. This research made me dance every day, at home, in the streets, in the studio, on travels, behind others, in front of myself, and in the felt sense of the present moment on our planet. This research also made me make 20+ casts of human backs, write more than 100 letters, take photos, and videos, create a part of a collective ZINE, use my voice (often for others), and engage with Swedish society and its history of individualism and my experience of loneliness. I practiced with my back as my front and I engaged with my own paradox; how could a research based on relationality, backspaces, and vulnerability take shape within a solo? Would it be possible to create a solo that is also a group piece?  On May 4th and 5th 2024, the dance performance All those things left behind, for now, was performed at MDT Moderna Dansteatern in Stockholm, Sweden, as a result of this research. A solo performance in which I aimed for a dance where several bodies would take place in my body. As if my body could be shaped by other bodies in the moment of dancing. I made a solo that takes a step back and shifts its focus from forward-oriented to backward-oriented. A solo in which grief is taking place, honoring lost loved ones, as well as forgotten futures. A vulnerable solo? A solo that deals with the present moment and the fact that everything is and will always be in the process of change. A solo that delves into all of this through dancing. Because I believe in dancing. And so the letters, a format I have been engaging with as a writing practice from within my dancing practice. There are a lot of strong correlations between these two practices. They're both relational. They hold movements; close small ones as well as bigger stretches overseas. They hold time, meaning a present, past, and future. They deal with a sender and a receiver. They involve, presuppose, and evoke a relation, conjure up the other, and guide us into conversation. Just like dancing. To write, send, and receive letters is for me procedures of intimate acts, acts of care, and a wish to share. Just like dancing. The letters can hold fantasies, facts, friction, fiction, fantoms, and fantastic movements. Again, just like dancing. I find that fascinating.  I collected 50 letters, written between August 2022 and May 2024. They perform the role of an essay and documentation of my Master’s degree project. The letters are written mainly from me, but also from other beings and things, performed by me. They are addressed to living and non-living beings and bodies of materials, written from different places and dance spaces on our earth. And from times of study, movement, crisis, war, grief, labor, hope, despair, love, and joy. What’s public here on Diva is a smaller collection, which was part of the collective Zine that I and my classmates did. If you are interested in reading and viewing more, you are more than welcome to contact me.  All the best, Matilda Bilberg

My work consists of the research of how to effectively write new material for a small baroque opera ensemble. How to make it possible to create a storyline that embarks through contrasting arias and duets from different arias with different synopsis.

I denna examenstext behandlar jag mina tankar om mitt komponerande och de parallella arbetssätt som präglat de senaste åren av mitt musikaliska skapande. Jag reflekterar över kontrasten mellan den abstrakta, absoluta konstmusiken jag skriver och kontrasterar detta mot de verk jag skapat som genomsyras av konkret, ofta teatralt berättande.   De frågeställningar jag vill besvara i denna text är följande:   Hur kan jag förmedla en konkret berättelse genom att inkorporera de musikaliska verktyg jag samlat på mig under min studietid? Kan dessa musikaliska verktyg kombineras med grepp från andra konstarter för att förstärka denna berättelse?   Kan jag nå fram till en publik på ett djupare plan genom mitt mer konkreta berättande, jämfört med att begränsa mig till enbart musikaliska gester?   Kan resultaten av dessa experiment med berättelser i fokus visa mig en väg framåt för mitt framtida skapande? Jag kommer att presentera mina tidigare erfarenheter av att komponera med konkreta berättelser och redogöra för hur dessa har påverkat min nuvarande konst och mina förhoppningar om framtiden.

Organ-ing is a multidisciplinary choreographic project that operates through a set of obscure organs that expand from spaces into bodies and from bodies into spaces. These organs don’t have vital functions and don’t seem to want to be named either; one could absolutely survive without them. Their byproducts are dances, sounds, objects, and poems: a gathering of lovers in lust for touch. Organ-ing is a strategy for a worlding that doesn’t stop at the body's borders. It is realised through an interest in the organ as a form that holds things as well as an ongoing formation. As an organ grows, I learn what it does. The project doesn’t follow linear paths of causality concerning what forms what: these organs shape and are shaped by what they create and hold. While realised and felt inside the human body, they also pour into and out of it. They might be organs of a human but they aren’t human organs. These emergent organs propose a sense of fiction to intertwine with the body’s pre-existing narratives, whether medical or holistic, and bring forth an array of fantasies that weave together the felt sense of the body. The organs of organ-ing don’t mean correcting or questioning what is already there. Instead, they twist or expand mostly pre-existent physical capacities to fabricate a body lustfully entangled with itself and its environment, with the ability and deep desire to belong. This alternative thesis is a website found on https://organ-ing.gergodfarkas.com/. The website contains hyperlinks, which lead to a series of footnotes. These footnotes can also be read as a coherent text.

“I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung” is an aria from the opera “Nixon in China”, written by American composer John Adams in 1987. My interest in contemporary music is driven by the opportunity to engage directly with living composers and the modern relevance of the themes. While searching for a new audition aria, I discovered the role of Chiang Ch’ing, which suits my coloratura soprano voice. This prompted an in-depth study of her historical background, reversing my usual method of learning an aria. This approach allowed for quicker and deeper internalization of the role, demonstrating that understanding a character's context can enhance performance, even without personal empathy. This method improved my connection with the audience and enriched my overall performance. I plan to apply this approach to future roles, whether they are based on historical figures or fictional characters.

Syftet med denna avhandling är att visa på den komplexitet som skådespelarens arbete med teater för barn och unga innebär. Avhandlingstexten utgår från en kritisk granskning av min egen professionella erfarenhet av att spela teater för barn och unga. Den grundläggande forskningsfrågan är: Vilka är de utmaningar vi som spelar teater för barn och unga ställs inför och hur förhåller vi oss till dem? Genom att lägga tonvikten vid uppsökande teater för skola och förskola blir utmaningarna extra tydliga. Dels måste skådespelaren förhålla sig till yttre omständigheter i en miljö som inte är tänkt för teater och en stark exponering av skådespelaren som privatperson. Dels måste skådespelaren hitta ett sätt att fungera i relation till publiken, där åskådarna består av en ålderspecifik och stundtals ovan teaterpublik som känner varandra i egenskap av klass- och skolkamrater och som oftast inte själva valt att se den föreställning som spelas för dem. Samtidigt skall skådespelaren relatera till den pedagogiska koppling som ofta förmodas finnas där. Avhandlingen består av egna berättelser, intervjuer med skådespelande kolleger och en teoretisk genomlysning av materialet. Den teoretiska grunden är fenomenologisk och hermeneutisk med ett sätt att betrakta teorin som en grundhållning i arbetsprocessen snarare än en referensbank som de berättade erfarenheterna skall mätas emot. Det dialogiska tilltalet genomsyrar skådespelarens arbete med teater för barn och unga. Både i det att jag som konstnär kommunicerar med min publik genom mina verk, men också i ett rent praktiskt perspektiv i det att jag i stunden, innan, under och efter föreställningen, måste vara öppen för att jag kommer att hamna i dialog med publiken. För att möta dessa utmaningar på ett kreativt sätt krävs det att jag som skådespelare har ett uppriktigt intresse för den publik jag möter, samt en stark tillit till teatern som konstnärligt medium. Utöver det måste jag också medvetandegöra mig själv om min egen hållning till det uppdrag jag har. I det som jag valt att kalla en insikt om min position, ingår en medvetenhet om var jag är, varför jag är där jag är, för vems skull jag är där samt vem jag är i publikens ögon. Strävan är att genom en realistisk förståelse för de villkor jag arbetar under, skapa ökade förutsättningar för lyckade möten med min unga publik. / Summary This dissertation is about children’s theatre from the perspective of the professional actor. The main question is: Which are the challenges we actors face when performing for children and young people, and how do we relate to them? The research is based on a long personal experience of acting in theatre aimed at children from the age of three to eighteen years old. In addition to this I have also interviewed actors with similar and different experiences of the same specific age groups, in order to get a better understanding of my field of research. My main goal is to show the complexity of this specific field of acting. The text is essayistic in that it is using experiences as means for reflection. Here I reflect on and over specific events from my practice. These reflections are then set against the interviews and texts from different philosophical and theoretical perspectives, mainly phenomenological and hermeneutic. In the presentation of the challenges I have chosen to focus on the theatre performed in the schools and classrooms. They are divided in three categories; External circumstances, Relation to audience and Other challenges. / <p>Stockholms dramatiska högskola</p>

This is a study that looks at the teaching process of making a dance show within the Community School of Arts from a posthumanist perspective. How does the matter the students meet and the dance teacher uses make a difference? My interest in this question came to grow from my dance related work in a pre-school context where matter is given importance in relation to how children gets possibilities to experience and learn. The research material for this study, however, was generated from the Community School of Arts in Stockholm. The study identifies the matter that is making a difference for the dance teaching and learning in a process towards making a dance show at the Community School of Arts of Stockholm. The matter of importance identified was connected to the subject areas Body, Music/Sound, Clothes, Light and Space. The study investigates and articulates performative force between human and non-human matter, and further how the students and the dance teacher perceive this performative force. The study discusses how dance teaching and learning can benefit from a more reflective use of matter. In connection to the posthumanist approach the study takes a stand for, I argue that knowledge-making in the Community School of Arts can be seen from a rhizomatic perspective. That implies that learning the arts at the Community School of Arts can give students the opportunity to experience art from their different points of interest. To actively acknowledge the performative force of the different material matter involved in the process of creating a dance show, give students a way to develop dance joy. I argue that a more reflective and conscious use of matter can positively transform the dance teaching and learning of today. In a wider perspective the matter of matter in dance teaching and learning is a question that fosters environmental consciousness building on the sense that we share and are part of the same world, where matter matters.

No description available.

ABSTRACT How can I as a Swedish dancer devoted to the Indian classical dance form, kathak, re root it into my own cultural sphere? And express topics beyond the Sub Indian continent without diluting the essence of the art form? I don’t want to create a new dance style.I don’t want to add anything. I want to explore and investigate how I within the tradition of kathak dance and Hindustani music can shuffle the classical format in order to create a longer narrative.  To create a dramaturgical nerve in the performance and take it further than the traditional short dances and compositions connected by being strung together on a basic rhythm. During this work I have followed different strands of evolution within me as a kathak dancers as well as personal experiences that has led up to this need of making it my kathak dance, rather than my Indian kathak dance. It’s also a close study of the relationship between a student and her master and how the master forces his student to mature to become her own master.  I want to use the kathak dance as an artistic expression to create performances based on topics interesting to me. I want to use the rhythmical patterns to enhance, elaborate and ornament the story told. How can I use the bols and sound from the kathak dance and Hindustani music? What happens if I instead of using bols create similar material but based on the Swedish language? The unexpected result of my research, the unexpected finding of what happened with me after I decided to drop India, and to focus my gaze to my own cultural space by being a native Swedish person living in Stockholm was that I lost my dance. I lost my geography.

Denna essä handlar om den pedagogiska situationen mellan lärare i scenisk gestaltning och skådespelarstudenter i en kurs i scenisk gestaltning på en konsnärlig högskola. Utgångspunkten är mitt fältarbete med deltagande observation som jag genomförde när jag följde undervisningen samt intervjuer med lärarna. Utifrån mina erfarenheter som regissör för jag en diskussion om skillnader och likheter mellan att regissera och att undervisa. Mina forskningsfrågor är: 1) Hur ser dialogens och mötets förutsättningar och hinder ut mellan lärare och student? 2) Vilken betydelse har vår förmåga att förstå ”den andre” för att kunna mötas? Mitt förhållningssätt är induktivt. Fokus ligger på meningsinnehållet i de situationer som uppstår i undervisningen och som framkommer i intervjuerna.  Jag vill undersöka om det finns gemensamma nämnare, ett fenomenens väsen i empirin. I min studie framkommer att lärarna ser dialog som en metod för överföring av kunskap. De framför vikten av att tydliggöra rollerna lärare och student och den makt(o)balans som finns i undervisningssituationen. När det handlar om att förstå ”den andre” var studentens skådespelararbete fokus. Där kunde läraren förstå och arbeta med studentens olika utvecklingssteg och processer. Det var genom förställningen, gestaltningen, som läraren förstod studenten som ”den andre”. Det som skulle kunna uppfattas som en omväg för förståelse blev istället den pedagogiska vägen mellan lärare och student.Mina teoretiska referenser är filosofisk litteratur och då framförallt Michail Bachtins tankar om den polyfona romanen, Martin Bubers dialogfilosofi, Jakob Meløe, Hans Skjervheim. Vad det gäller metoddelen har jag använt mig Katrine Fangens text om deltagande observation. / <p>Källor bl.a. Anton Tjechov, Martin Buber, Michail Bachtin, Jakob Meløe, Hans Skjervheim</p>