Solveig Styve Holte Ann-Christin Kongsness Venke Marie Sortland
Opening Before you is the second edition of the anthology CHOREOGRAPHY. Yet again we want to expand and build a rich and complex understanding of the term. A diversity of voices active in the field of dance and choreography in the Nordic countries are made visible. All texts are newly written for this anthology, and all are written by artists. Through sharing reflections and issues, choreography can be approached as its own field of knowledge. We, as an independent editorial based in Oslo, make use of this anthology to reach out and contribute to a larger Nordic disciplinary community. The initiative behind CHOREOGRAPHY stems from an interest in the language that artists themselves can develop. The writers are in different stages in their approach. Yet they are united in their attempt to find a productive way to relate to language, so that language can be used for what they need in their artistic carriers. Where some master and make use of an academic form to ask questions and create change – others put forward the academic as exhausted for possibilities and are searching for new forms and expressions. The anthology is an initiative to support and lift critical perspectives regarding choreographic practice, as well as structures that we as artists are dependent on. The ambition is to protect a space for reflection that we experience as threatened, that is to say the thinking from and around the artistic works. In a time where most artists live with constant demands of self promotion, self-staging and circulation, we experience this as all the more important. When knowledge is shared, more of us can take part in the conversation.
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