A blog post from Ásrún Magnúsdóttir’s first residency at Dansverkstaedid, Reykjavik, Iceland.
We have now spent the last 10 days together, we have two more days to come here in Iceland before we meet again in the Netherlands. We are: me, Ásrún and Amaparo and Ólöf. We have been: Getting to know each other. Sharing knowledge and methods. Seeking inspiration and finding inspiration. Swimming in the pool. Asking questions. Creating statements. Walking on a new lava. Walking by the sea. Sharing practices and strategies. Looking at the volcano from far. Fighting a monkey. Eating fish at a restaurant. Eating cake on the beach. Trusting in the process. Feeling many earthquakes. Playing and listening to music at a bar. Eating spicy noodle soup and drinking maté. Joining different zoom sessions. Having stomach pain from drinking too much coffee. Creating context. Doing lists. Working with the resources we have here and now. Meeting different people.
We have formed a small community with all the people we have been sharing our time and space with. The people that belong to the community at the moment are, me, Amaparo, Ólöf, Tinna the host and producer of Danverskstæði, Mathilde a dancer and choreographer, currently working on a new thing in a studio next to us. Erla the fighting monkey teacher and all the fighting monkey class. Lovísa and Vala that we had lunch with and learned about their artistic works. The people doing Crowd residencies in other countries that we have met online or watched a video recording of their zoom sharings. Siggi the video content maker, that came here and shot us, me, Amparo and Ólöf having a real talk by a table and having a fake a talk on the balconies, together with Tinna. Sara Marti and Bryndís, who gave us a little tour and talk about Tjarnarbíó, independent theater down town. And we have more people to join this community today and tomorrow, both in Iceland and in other countries when we do our zoom session.
Questions we have been asking are for example; How to remember, every time, of trusting in the process? What would imply “to fail” in an (our) artistic process? How to create collective patience in a process? To pay or not to pay to the non-professionals participants? When should a project finish? Which people are we thinking of as part of this temporary /small community? What does “community-engaged dance” mean? Extensive work vs intensive – what kind of time frame do we envision for our work? How do we create something in common? How to continue to be curious? What does Inclusivity in performing arts mean? What would be not a “community” art/work/project?
Images below © Ólöf Ingólfsdóttir, Tinna Grétarsdóttir and Amparo González Sola
CROWD 