– a conversation between Marie Bergby Handeland and Ingeborg Dugstad Sanders

Marie Bergby Handeland is presenting the performance Choreography for two musicians this spring

How did your journey into dance begin?
I grew up in Nittedal, and there was an enthusiast who started the dance school “Touch of Dance” which was very popular. So in my youth I followed the flow and was dragged along by friends. That was where I had my first encounter with contemporary dance, and I remember very well when we were asked to lie down and roll on the floor for the first time – it gave me a real kick!

And then you rolled on through your career…
Yes, after doing the dance program in high school, I did a year at Sunnhordland Folk High School which at the time had a dance program focused on “creative forces” – and there I had you as a teacher, hehe… That year was actually decisive for me to continue dancing. And then followed three years of professional education at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts.

I remember a conversation we had after a ballet class at the Folk High School where you exclaimed: “it’s incredible how much time I’ve spent hating my feet!”
So funny that you mention it! I think that my path forward with dance has been shaped in opposition to my own experiences with dance training. You can never escape your own body. It was pointed out time and time again that I needed to stretch my feet more even though I stretched everything I could. And it never got better! For me, it was a liberation to finish my education, and to finally be able to deal with the body in a different way.

You have a long list of projects behind you, and in many of your works you have worked with people who are not trained in dance. What is it that makes this interesting to you?
I think in many ways that the unpolished offers greater vulnerability. The honest and not quite perfected attempt creates a unique expression, and communicates something that you as a spectator may be able to relate to in a different way. But it is very important to me that the performers radiate a sense of comfort on stage, despite the fact that they may not have such “trained” bodies and movements.

Is there something transferable between the processes in the different projects that makes you arrive at this level of comfort?
I actually have to approach it quite differently each time. But we always figure it out together. Often I also have to adapt the methods to each individual performer in the same project. The most important thing is to find the key to each individual being able toward with and investigate movement seriously, and believe in what they are doing. I find it touching to see others find material that has a motivation that is their own.

What was the starting point for “choreography for two musicians” that is coming to Trondheim during Jazzfest?
I have done several projects that have focused on music, musicians and instruments, and wanted to go deeper into that work with two specific musicians that I knew from before. In many of my projects I go into the unknown in the encounter – for example in BOYS which is made with a large group of teenage boys that I did not know from before. But this time I wanted to start from a starting point where I was absolutely sure that the performers were playful and fearless.

What are your thoughts about the audience’s experience of seeing different bodies on stage?
I am motivated by challenging the perception of which bodies are considered valuable to look at, and I also believe that this gives a greater breadth in which audience members feel that what is shown on stage is relevant to them. The beauty of art is that it can expand how we see each other.

Read more about Choreography for two Musicians