DETOUR - ENTRE NOUS

DETOUR URBAN DANCE FESTIVAL 2012 ENTRE NOUS

Toxique Magazine special edition

special edition of Toxique Magazine Toxique Magazine

Toxique Magazine is a free online art magazine which visually tries to describe relevant artistic events internationally by capturing current trends in every different artistic gernre and style - including modern experimental dance.

Detour is a co-production between Dansehallerne and Sara Jordan. Dansehallerne’s Urban Perfomance program and Detour Urban Dance festival is a celebration of the whole urban dance environment and is dedicated to further accelerate urban dance, meet new audiences across cultural differences and strengthen the great choreographic potential in Denmark.

During the four-days-festival Dansehallerne in Copenhagen the collaboration with Detour will offer true urban dance with dance performances, dance battles, workshops, outdoor street events, afterparty, etc.

In this special edition of Toxique, the magazine features the modern dance performance ‘Entre Nous’ by Tine Salling (DK), who participated in DETOUR URBAN DANCE FESTIVAL 2012.

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created by editor and contemporary visual photographic artist Marie Wengler www.mariewengler.com mariewengler.see.me

Marie Wengler

Entre nous

Choeographer Tine Salling Dancers Luc Boris André Kouadio, Jeff Aksengor, Natasja Wulff Pedersen, Tine Salling Supernumeraries Frederikke Hauberg, Maya Leedgaard Olsen, Gantiva Rodríguez, Jana Hoffmeister, Anne SofieLee Bundgaard, Camilla Rueløkke, Peter Hunter Albrektsen

Tina Salling’s work ‘Entre Nous’ handles essential questions regarding they way we live our lives and society today. About her work she says: “Certain things are given - to go to work, to help each other. We work together, we go through rituals and we follow the rules. It has always been this way. But are we (the Danes) not the world’s happiest people, because we at Saturday night go to Kødbyen (in Copenhagen) and break all the rules free of charge? Or is this “fuck-itall” behavior just a new set of rules that we follow? And is alcohol our new religion? How big is the chance that we wake up next to the right ‘piece of meat’? And can ‘the pig’, which lies next to you, prove to be a good person? Such a person that you can relate to one-on-one. “

Well, first of all, thank you. The list does sound long, when you put it like that. And I guess I have been in the business for quite a while now. It’s hard to say where this interest for dance started. Because as long as I remember, I’ve been dancing. But I never took classes as a child. I would always participate in all junior ball dance competitions though. I was always better at dancing at parties, than talking to the other kids. It’s still like that. And I’m still a freestyle club dancer in my heart. More than a professional performer. I actually didn’t choose to become a dancer until I was 21. The love for street dance in particular happened before that though.

In 1990, to be exact, when a member of Out of Control would teach in my home town. This became my greatest passion. And I have to say that the Robodettes wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for Steen Koerner who started us, and gave us the name and the moves… So I owe a lot to Anthony Edwards, Kenneth Fogel, Warren Crooks and Steen Koerner, who got me into hip hop.

Creating things by myself always came naturally along with being a dancer. I’m much too opinionated to only work for others. And it’s also been very necessary, because I’m not what you would call a commercial all round dancer. I’m very strong in specific styles and not as advanced in other styles. So in order to present the styles I do, I’ve had to create things on my own. But honestly even though I’ve created things for years, I’m very humble towards the word CHOREOGRAPHER. Unlike many other dancers, unfortunately. Because putting fierce steps together isn’t what it’s about. To me, it’s a goal I’ve been working towards for years. I’ve studied dance history and aestethics, so I know a few things about the great choreographer minds in ballet, jazz and modern dance as well. Telling a story through movement is something that street dance is still learning. And maybe now after doing my piece for Detour, I’m ready to call myself a choreographer.

Dear Tine. I know you’re both an incredibly talented street dancer and urban choreographer with international experience. You have been both a member and co-choreographer for Denmark’s first female electric boogie troupe the Robodettes, you have created Denmark’s first house dance ensemble Haus Fraus, and is now a choreographer and director of GPT (mixture of dance and parkour). Furthermore, you have performed and choreographed fashion shows, music videos, live concerts and theater. Your resume is long, impressive and inspiring!

I’m curious to know more about how, when and why you became interested in both dance and choreography…

How is urban dance a unique artistic ‘language’ according to you?

Urban dance is many things today.

Contemporary is urban dance, and hip hop is also contemporary. And I hope the contemporary scene will welcome us more here in Denmark. Because we have so many things to learn from eachother. Hip hop is no longer the new kid on the block.

It’s been around since the 80’s. Some of the street styles since the 70’s. And it’s unique in the way that it came from the streets and the night clubs. So in it’s early beginning it was as free as any improvisation. But now it has rules. Rules for popping, rules for locking, rules for breaking etc. And that narrows down the freedom, but within a frame, improvisation becomes more approachable. And every style has it’s own energy, so as a choreographer there are sometimes obvious choices: If you want an powerful or aggressive expression you choose for example krumping or breaking. If you want to entertain and make people smile, you choose locking.

Popping is good to show things going on inside your body. But all of them show emotion. I personally love to work with house dance, because it’s a fusion style and it usually doesn’t have a certain energy, which makes it more free to add onto… So all of this is an advantage, but it can also become a disadvantage if we don’t learn how to break the rules. The perfect street dancer knows all of these techniques so well, that breaking all the rules means creating their own unique style. It’s sort of contradictive in a way, right? But you gotta know the rules before you start breaking them.

Tina Salling, both as a dancer and choreographer has helped to innovate street dance during the last decade. First as a member and co-choreographer for Denmark’s first female robot dance troupe the Robodettes, afterwards as the creator of Denmark’s first house dance ensemble Haus Fraus, and now as a choreographer and director of GPT, which is a company that merges dance and parkour. Tina Salling has also performed and choreographed numerous fashion shows, music videos, live concerts and television shows.

She has choreographed for DGI’s world them and has traveled with the team to Japan, where she on the way to Japan managed to create a small show with Japanese house dancers and at the same time win a quarter-final among 100 house dancers in Tokyo in a dance battle. In addition, Tina Salling is the funk & house mama in Denmark. One of the few who master and teaches locking in Denmark and one of the first to bring the house dance to the Danish dance studios.

I have had the unique and unforgettable experience to photograph your piece ‘ENTRE NOUS’ during the DETOUR URBAN DANCE FESTIVAL 2012 in Copenhagen, and I immediately felt hooked by your choreography and your dancers’ amazing charisma. I’m therefore curious to know more about your ideas and thoughts behind your piece?

Well again, Thank you… This piece was extremely personal to me. I guess they always are. But I was working with the idea of how we overall relate to eachother in three different ways. The first part describes the actions we all do almost automatically and never question. We go into it with all our hearts. Rituals that haven’t changed through generations.

Going to work to support yourself and your family. Helping eachother and following the rules given by society. And when we start questioning these things, then our society doesn’t work. The community fails. So usually we don’t. Because we are stronger together. Then I asked myself the question how we, the Danish people, can be the happiest people in the world, if all we do is follow the rules.

And I think one of the answers to that lies in our alcohol culture. We get loaded and break all the rules. And it’s as if our society accepts it. It’s how we blow out steam. I’ve done a lot of research in this area myself ;-) Especially in the Meat Packing District.

So I added the pigs head to one of my scenes becauses sometimes we act like pigs, but when you are drunk, you don’t care. And then I move abruptly into the third part asking myself how you relate to this pig, you met last night when you were half unconscious, now that morning dawns and you see the actual person.

Completely sober. Something real happens in this space between two intimate strangers. Therefore the title “Entre Nous”, describing that space between us.

Furthermore, how is your creative workflow when creating a new piece/performance how do you create a new piece? Do you work from a general idea and gradually define the details, or do you plan every little detail perfectly in advance?

I definitely don’t plan every little detail. I have the music, the theme and the bigger picture before bringing the dancers into the studio. The bigger picture means what kind of mood, tempo, dynamics, and relations between the dancers I’m working with in the various parts.

But the actual steps aren’t made. I make them during rehearsal and in corporation with the dancers.

And in this case the idea for the piece came from the music that’s in the last part. It’s a rather fantastic piece of music by Andy Benz a Danish musician who loops different sounds on his electric upright bass.

It has a touch of rhythmical and a touch of classical and jazz and many other layers to it.

When I heard it I instantly knew that I wanted to do partner work, mixing styles and something that shows two or more people bringing eachother back in balance while walking in and out of relations. To make a generalization I think that dance always evolves when music does.

What or who inspires you? Do you relate to or consult with other choreographers or dancers in your creative process when you experiment with new ideas?

Sara, who build Detour, inspires me.

Her creative courage. And yes, I consulted with her, since a lot of my former experience as a choreographer has been in cooperation with her. I was also helped by Helen Dohlmann and Niclas Bendixen who has way more experience than I. A friend of mine, César Garcier, who is a modern dancer asked me all the right questions in the early stages where I had to define my project to the dancers.

And everytime I had no inspiration I called on my muse, Josephine, who was my first and best Electic Boogie partner. Still is.

What I’m trying to say is, that consulting with people who knows your mind really well is extremely important. But also the ones who don’t. And some of my dancers didn’t know me very well.

And they sure do inspire me. That’s why I hired them.

What has been the biggest challenge and best experience in your career so far?

My first big challenge as a street dancer, was the first time I stepped into a cypher. Actually the first two times I tried, I got kicked out by more experienced dancers. I didn’t stand a chance. First in Copenhagen and next time in Paris. They wouldn’t even let me dance, and I think it’s because I didn’t look confident enough to fit in. Today the hip hop community is friendlier. My best and most challenging experience and as a performer was doing the piece “69 – en rockteaterkoncert” by Niclas Bendixen. As a choreographer it was this piece for Detour. Because it was the first time my name was on the poster before I actually had a clue what to do. But I feel proud about the result, so I was on cloud nine when it premiered, and I found out that I actually touched others as well.

During the time you have worked professionally with dance, how will you describe the development at the urban dance scene? Moreover, how has the political incitement for supporting new modern experimental artistic dance in Denmark been - has it maybe changed?

I think the most obvious development is how street dancers now are creating things that are not necessarily “street” related.

So we are using our art form to express ourselves as people and artists and not only demonstrating hip hop culture. I have never actually tried to get government funding for my projects, because it has seemed unachievable until now. This opposition has made us strong to a certain extent. But it has also made us do tons of shitty commercial jobs that modern dancers don’t have to do. It actually hurts me that all urban sports today are sponsored by Red Bull. But that’s a another discussion... If you turn to the theater scene, a lot of the hired dancers that used to be trained jazz dancers are now replaced by urban dancers.

Which interests do you have besides dance and choreography?

Photography like yourself. It makes sense, since I like creating beautiful or meaningful images on the floor and in life.

Social relations and anthropology, which I would have studied I’ve I had to choose another path. But I teach in a “højskole”, so I get that covered too, in a more hands on kind of way.

And to me, Entre Nous is my way of reflecting on this subject.

What do you hope the future holds for you?Â

Fresh new hips and a brand new spine ;-) No, just kidding. I think my body holds 10 more years of performance. I want to create more though, and start pulling myself out of my creations, to be able to put more time into doing lighting and next level stuff whatever that means.

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