Reykjavík Grapevine - 27.09.2019, Blaðsíða 20

We strive to connect. We crave touch
and intimacy. We want to belong and
be a part of something. We strive to feel
some shared experience. These are not
questions to be answered in !el, Katrín
Gunnarsdóttir’s newest dance piece for
the Iceland Dance Company (IDC), but
situations we are compelled to watch
for in it.
Bodily relationships
Katrín is an award-winning choreog-
rapher who has been involved in the
Icelandic dance scene for over a decade,
as an independent dancer and choreog-
rapher, as well as with events like the
Reykjavík Dance Festival and Every-
body’s Spectacular. !el is her first piece
with the IDC, and it’s proving to be a
mutually beneficial union, one that
reflects the compassion and together-
ness of the performance itself.
The piece is a dynamic, flowing
organism comprised of seven danc-
ers—the largest group that Katrín has
choreographed for—allowing her to
explore new types of bodily relation-
ships. “With !el, the aim was to re-
ally make a dance performance for a
group,” says Katrín. “It’s very much
about the group. How the group is in-
teracting, intertwining, listening to
each other, creating these embracing,
repetitive rituals or images. They’re
kind of weaving together this sort of
landscape.”
These intertwinements and interac-
tions play a lot with different aspects of
physical touch and corporeal connec-
tion, tying the movements in closely
to the title. The word "el (pronounced
thel) itself is rife with meaning. It can
refer to the membranes in the body, de-
scribe empathy or compassion, and it’s
also the name for the thinnest softest
layer of Icelandic wool that lies closest
to the skin.
“When I named the work, then it
was just like, poof!” says Katrín. “It just
opened up somehow. All the threads
started connecting. The image started
to form. That was actually the biggest
turning point, landing on this title.”
Touch is integral
From this point, she began to explore
the ideas of boundaries and contact—
merging and blurring them—in order
to build the group movements. “Touch
is an integral part of this,” she says.
“Working with the space that’s in
the periphery of the skin, then really
touching and being very close, and then
trying to almost get closer than you
possibly can. To go even through the
other person or for the individual to
really disappear into the group.”
The group’s input in this process
was integral and hugely influential on
the output of the
work, as Katrín felt
the profound en-
ergy emitted from
the dancers, who
work together reg-
ularly. “When I’m
working on the cre-
ation process, it’s
very much a collab-
orative effort,” she
says. “The danc-
ers contribute so
much. I give them
tasks and improvi-
sations to work on
and then we build on that. I’m the one
in charge of things, I take responsibil-
ity for the choices, but there is still a
lot of input from them. There’s more
complexity than in my previous work.
They work together all year round so
there is already a group entity, so that’s
also kind of what drove me.”
“Entanglement”
The word ‘thel’ also has an English con-
notation, derived from William Blake’s
poem ‘The Book of Thel.’ It can refer
to desire, wish, feminine frailty and
the frailty of humankind. While Katrín
was not directly working off this idea,
she does see it as a way
one could approach
the work, and also
how some of the in-
teractions in the piece
could be interpreted.
“I’m also working
with these qualities
of softness, fragil-
ity, quietness, slow-
ness, and sensitive,
intimate encounters,”
she says. “That’s also
something I real ly
want to amplify and
put forward in my
work. I think it’s sometimes mistaken
for weakness. It’s mistaken for some-
thing that’s less interesting than some-
thing that’s based on drama or conflict.
Even though I’m working with intense
physicality, it’s not in a conflict stand-
point.”
Katrín prefers the idea and the word
‘entanglement’, rather than conflict,
to describe the form of tension in !el.
“It means things that are meeting
that don’t fit together at the begin-
Culture
The Strength
Of Sensitivity
Compassionate entanglements in the new dance piece !el
Dance Piece
!el will be
performed on
September 29th,
October 4th, and
October 13th at
Borgarleikhúsi".
Tickets are 4,900
ISK.
“I’m working with
these qualities of
softness, fragility,
quietness, slowness,
and sensitive,
intimate encounters.
I think it’s sometimes
mistaken for
weakness.”
20The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17— 2019
Katrín Gunnarsdóttir's newest show will take you on an emotional ride
Words:
Rex Beckett
Photos:
Iceland Dance
Company
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