Intricate mathematics, existential march, and artificial mundanity are set in motion in choreographer Björn Säfsten’s new work.

From intricate patterns of walking, twists, and sudden stops, the work ‘and so we’re gone’ emerges, forming a detailed yet fascinating web of movement. Central to the work lies the relation between the infinite nature of time and our own finite mortality. Who are we, in the midst of it all?

The work starts with a repeated pattern of walking and develops slowly. A choreographic approach infused with suspense, seriousness, and a dash of fantasy. Through rhythmic shifts, in the pattern of squares, geometries and rituals appear and within that an artificial mundanity is inserted, as snapshots, or are they fantasies? Chopped up intensities from a life lived and a life lost. Is it possible to embody something as abstract as the subjective experience of time? How are we stopped by a memory that suddenly attacks us? Do we understand the inexorable march of time, truly, or perhaps always too late?

Björn Säfsten continues to challenge our perception of time by exploring the abstract and the concrete in the smallest elements of movement, here together with a brilliant quartet of dancers who leave no one indifferent.

An autobiographical and arbitrary all-knowing performance about something everybody does but no one knows what it is: dance!

The title “I själva verket” could in Swedish be read in two ways within this context. As a saying it would translate to “In fact”, but it can also be understood as “In the actual piece”. The title contains Anja Arnquist and Björn Säfstens ambition with this performance. It comes from a strive of wanting to answer and open up conversations that Säfsten has had the last 8 years with audience members regarding contemporary dance, theories of dance practices and why some work might look or be read in a certain way.

Björn Säfsten and Anja Arnquist has developed numerous formats individually and as collaborators such as inter-active perforamances, workshops and performance-lectures to find an adequate meeting ground with a general audience. Both has continually toured around Sweden with this type of projects. An experience that has made them notice patterns in what type of questions and worries that puzzles the audience when it comes to contemporary dance. The questions vary but a number of themes tends to come back. In “I själva verket” Björn attempts to talk and dance, sometimes simultaneously, to show, visualise, explain, question and juggle the complicated issues at hand, always with humour and gentleness.

Where does the movements in contemporary dance come from, how can they be interpreted and is there a right way to understand dance? Is dancing a sort of sign language, where movements have certain meaning? It often seems rather self-centered? And how can I relate the dance to the outside world, the artist or my own history?

This piece is available in several different versions, including a Swedish and an English version (available from June 2024).

In an abstract existence, three individuals come together in an attempt to talk and share a listening coexistence. They form a choir, a flock and at the same time are three different people who talk about what happened before. Together they process a multitude of emotions and attempt in different ways to categorise their impressions, actions and thoughts. Some emotions become embodied and wander away, others enable a physical space to serve as an outlet.

In Lost Night Björn Säfsten and dancers Sophie Augot, Alexander Gottfarb and Marianne Kjaersund attempt to approach the feeling of loss. It´s a puzzle of fictional situations whose building blocks process what it means to lose something or someone. In the performance, the dancers use words, sound, song and movement to take in and sing out the choreography. Composer Hans Appelkvist has created soundscapes, compositions and songs together with the dancers who perform them.