Cullbergbaletten season 2018/2019: choreography and music in the 21st century
NEAR
Choreographer Eleanor Bauer works for the first time with Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean and Cullbergbaletten creating the concept dance concert, a common fantasy world in which they examine the concept together. The two artists share an interest in poetry which is a big part of this unique collaboration.
Originally from the US, Bauer is a PhD candidate in Choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. The music for NEAR is created by Jonatan Leandoer Håstad /Yung Lean in collaboration with ambient music multi-instrumentalist and video artist Frederik Valentin. The dancers in Cullbergbaletten co-create a temporary autonomous zone in which they navigate improvisational practices and scores to continually generate spontaneous interpretations of a musically and poetically structured universe. Fragile forms and strong magic drive the collaboration in a touching and honest excavation of what it takes to be awake in the world, in a body, with others.
Eleanor Bauer
Eleanor Bauer is a performer and choreographer working at the intersections of dance, writing, and music. From talk shows to evening-length ensemble pieces, her versatile works range in scale, media, and genre, traversing disparate methods and categories of performance. Originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico, Bauer studied at Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, holds a BFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, completed the Research Cycle at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels, and is a PhD candidate in Choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. She has been producing her own pieces via GoodMove vzw in Brussels since 2007, touring internationally to critical acclaim. She was artist in residence at Kaaitheater in Brussels from 2013-2016, and co-founded the open-source format for exchange of practices in the performing arts called Nobody’s Business in 2015 (www.nobodysbusiness.info). Bauer has collaborated and worked as a performer with, among others, choreographers Xavier Le Roy, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas, Boris Charmatz, Trisha Brown, Mette Ingvartsen, David Zambrano; with visual artists Matthew Barney and Emily Roysdon; and with music artists Ictus ensemble and The Knife. Bauer has worked in close collaboration with musician and composer Chris Peck since 2003, creating several original works together over the years.
Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean
The tale of Yung Lean is as unassuming as it is wildly exploratory, a contradictory narrative about a misfit stranger from Stockholm who became a worldwide phenomenon – a protracted and at times grievous metamorphosis from pubertal, post-internet novelty to D.I.Y icon with an extensive, organic influence over anything and everything from off-beat art projects and mainstream culture alike. Originating with a nomadic upbringing in Vietnam and Belarus via secretly experimenting and recording in a highschool computer lab to first hand encounters of the triumphs and tragedies of rockstar hyperbole, the mere four years have passed since Ginseng Strip 2002 saw the light of day. It has set him off on a seemingly genreless and open minded dispatch into the past, present and future of pop culture, an alternate reality where early internet aesthetics, late 90’s southern rap and a punk mindset all fused perfectly together. The momentum born from the gentle, abstract touch of his first tracks were swiftly embodied by Kyoto, electrified by Yoshi City deconstructed again via Hoover and then re-animated by Hennesy & Sailor Moon; emerging each time perhaps not rejuvenated but in many ways re invented, his trademark lethargic flow and singular lyrical content elevated and seamlessly integrated with GUD and Yung Shermans’s resourceful and labelfree sonic scenery. Soon to be 22 years of age, the past years have been huge for Yung Lean; besides kicking off with the independently released, eclectic album Warlord in 2016 and embarking on a sold out world tour, it also saw him featured on Frank Ocean’s Blonde, star in Calvin Klein’s #mycal-vins campaign, launch his own Sadboys Gear brand, co-design a sneaker for Eytys and drop a full length punk album together with GUD as Död Mark – to name a few highlights. Last year Yung Lean released Stranger, his 4th studio album project that was followed by an extensive world tour. The collaboration with Eleanor Bauer and Cullbergbaletten is his first commissioned work.
NEAR – a dance concert by Eleanor Bauer and Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean
Performed by Cullbergbaletten
Initiated idea: Eleanor Bauer and Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean
Choreography: Eleanor Bauer with the dancers in Cullbergbaletten
Music: Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean in collaboration with Frederik Valentin
Set design: Josefin Hinders
Lighting design: Jonatan Winbo
Costume design: Pontus Pettersson
With 12 dancers in Cullbergbaletten
Co-production with Luger, Way Out West Festival Gothenburg and Southbank Centre, London
World premiere at Way Out West, Gothenburg, August 2018
ON THE CUSP
The season’s second premiere is by choreographer Ian Kaler who for the first time creates a big stage production for Cullbergbaletten. ON THE CUSP will be a mix of live-practicing and synchronized movements. It will be a combined live and video work, on a series of different topics, a spectrum of emotions and projections. The work presents a collection of portraits, of the individuals, as well as of the group. Every dancer has their own story, and the company connects them. Who are the people in the group, and how do they construct this group? Shifting from different kind of characters, who are they in private and how does that shape the stage character? The music of electronically synthesized brass sound composed by Planningtorock will create bold, dramatic, playful and deeply moving dance pieces.
Ian Kaler
Ian Kaler, originally from Austria, studied Transmedial Art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and graduated from the BA Pilot program Contemporary Dance, Context, Choreography at the Inter-University Center for Dance, the University of the Arts in Berlin. Since 2010 he has developed his physical and creative practice in choreographic series in exchange with different artists through different (visual) media, among others, dancer and fashion designer Stephane Peeps Moun, musician Jam Rostron/Planningtorock, lighting designer and video artist Imogen Heath, and drummer Joy Leah Joseph. A special format within the o.T. Series is RAW PRACTICE which was presented at LABO Festival in Stockholm in April 2018, curated by Cullbergbaletten. In a structured and improvised jam session Kaler and Planningtorock uncover their shared practice and further develop it in an intimate dialogue that communicates between different media and languages. Most recently Ian Kaler has premiered the piece LIVFE, the first of a new series of works that combine movement with (spoken) language, live music and live video at Akademietheater in the frame of ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, in August 2017. Ian Kaler develops workshops as research formats analog to his choreographic series, until now for DOCH, School for Dance and Circus, Stockholm, ImPulsTanz Vienna International Dance Festival, Tanzquartier Vienna as well as for the Escuela Profesional de Danza in Mazatlán and the University of Sonora in Mexico. Besides giving workshops for professional dancers with mixed abilities he has also transmitted his practice in workshops for practitioners from backgrounds other than dance.
ON THE CUSP
Concept and choreographic framing: Ian Kaler
Musical score: Planningtorock
Set design: Stephanie Rauch
Lighting design and video: Imogen Heath
Costume design and movement input/choreographic assistance: Stephane Peeps Moun
With 14 dancers in Cullbergbaletten
Co-production: Tanzquartier Vienna, Norrlandsoperan Umeå, PACT Zollverein, Essen.
Ian Kaler is supported by Wien Kultur.
World premiere 10 January 2019, Tanzquartier, Vienna
Sweden premiere 30 January 2019, Norrlandsoperan, Umeå
On tour season 2018/2019
Figure a Sea by Deborah Hay, music by Laurie Anderson
Protagonist by Jefta van Dinther, music by ELIAS and David Kiers
The Mental States of Sweden in Dance by Mattias Andersson
NEAR by Eleanor Bauer, music by Jonatan Leandoer Håstad/Yung Lean
ON THE CUSP by Ian Kaler, music by Planningtorock
Press images: www.cullbergbaletten.se
For more information, please contact:
Erica Espling, PR- an Marketing Manager Cullbergbaletten
+46 (0)70-602 27 01
erica.espling@cullbergbaletten.se
Cullbergbaletten
Cullbergbaletten is the leading repertoire company for contemporary dance in Sweden. The company is an important contributor to the international presentation of dance and choreography with tours all over the world. Cullbergbaletten works with a range of international choreographers and artists. The company currently has 16 dancers from nearly as many countries, and guest dancers are continuously invited to various projects. Since its inception the individual quality of each dancer has been Cullbergbaletten’s defining characteristic. By collaborating with choreographers and directors who are rooted in the contemporary field, Cullbergbaletten contributes strongly to the development of performing arts and dance as an art form. Cullbergbaletten’s activities encompass different projects and productions including workshops, conferences, seminars, and lectures. The directors are Gabriel Smeets and Stina Dahlström. Cullbergbaletten was founded in 1967 by Birgit Cullberg under the auspices of Riksteatern, the Swedish National Touring Theatre.