semafor / c'est-ma-fou / c'est-mon-fort

Translating text into movement have interested many artists during the years. Projekt Invitation is exploring semafor - an old signalling language mainly used at sea.

This means that Ege and Modou has to spend a lot of time and energy learning how to dance the first paragraph of the Declaration of the Human Rights, and it's not always as funny as in the previous pics from Café des Arts (maybe it's lack of café frappé...).

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience, and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

To be able to keep that spirit sometimes you just need to take a break and freak out. Go c'est-ma-fou!

Working in the studio and out in the office

Since Projekt Invitation explores the meeting between modern and traditional dance, and Swedish and Senegalese artists, we have 2 choreographers. This is Anna Zetterqvist from Sweden, just arrived to L'ecole des Sables.

We jumped head first into work, by showing Anna what we'd done so far.

She picked up the core of the project and the story really quick. Here are some pics from improvisations with Ege and Modou, and of course our new, specially designed, suitcase.

In the meantime Maria was praising wifi and Internet that made it possible to solve some technical and musical problems with Rikard Jönsson and Magnus Larsson back in Sweden.

Officework is so much nicer in an outdoor-office. We're gonna miss this ceiling. The floor on the other hand could be a lot cooler - walk barefoot in the daytime and you'll really burn your soles!

L'ecole des sables

Toubab Dialaw is only a few miles south of Dakar, but because of the roads and the traffic it might take several sweaty seat-enduring longing-for-fresh-air-hours to get from one place to the other. Our toubab-advice is to not take these buses

but to find a setplace (=ordinary car extraordinarily equipped with extra backseat, hence the name "seven places") or any other car whole enough for you. Just avoid the ones with goats on the roof, unless you are extremely into any kind of surprises.

Projekt Invitation are now enjoying and working to make the most out of our received residency at L'ecole des Sables http://www.jantbi.org/ here in Toubab Dialaw.

It's also the heads of the school, Germain Acogny and Helmut Vogt, who have put us in contact with the Senegalese choreographer and dancer Alioune Diagne. So far we have only seen him on youtube, but we think he's gonna fit right into our roadproject.

Sables means sand, and even if the sea is just one steep mountainclimb away it's almost desertlike here.

There are several spaces and studios, for example this outdoor-studio

...and the almost camouflaged indoorstudio/conferenceroom where we're working.

And this is Ege Özdogan

Maria Reihs

and Mamadou Diatta

just arrived and ready to rumble.

Rehearsing and rejoicing in Senegal

Recepy for bush-café frappé; make some ice in a bottle. Crush it and mix with condensed milk and coffeepowder. Shake it like your best maraccas...

...and voilá!

After this you are ready to dance the semafor-choreography to the reggaemusic at Café des Artistes in Toubab Diallaw!

Bégué! Here we are, Ege Özdogan, Maria Reihs and Mamadou Diatta, at L'ecole des Sables in Toubab Diallaw Senegal, rehearsing the performance and planning for the tour! Thanks to Internet we are able to collaborate with composer and musician Magnus Larsson and our technical guru Rikard Jönsson in Sweden. In a few days our Swedish choreographer Anna Zetterqvist will join us, and the week after Alioune Diagne, our Senegalese choreographer.

We will give you more pics and updates as the project continues!

Summerrain and surprises

The 20th of June it's worldpremiere for a new short film from us! It's an experiment with text and movement, and the theme made us choose this specific date for release. Now you can either wait 'til we tell you, or check up what's going on in the world that day...

   We shot the last scenes yesterday. Somehow the weather had decided that around 10C, rain and icecold winds was suitable for the day. Not quite like when we shot the other scenes in Senegal, but grey skies look cool on pics! 

We decided to shoot under Västerbron in Stockholm, and in the background you can see the tower of the cityhall where the Nobelprizedinners are held. 

   We thought we were in an almost hidden place since it's a bit off and because of the weather, but lots of soaked people, happy dogs and joggers passed by. Some of them got "culturally integrated" by us...

or by Stockholms dancing statue of Liberty.

     

Afterwards we went for warming tea and budgetmeeting. Sometimes being in the middle of everything you don't realize how much has actually happened. Following a project from the first neuronic spark to reality is...amazing.  

You may say cliché, I say touché.

Dance, rythm, sound.  

Everywhere. Everything. Everyone.

   A cliché? Then it's time for reclaiming. Reclaim the clichés! 

When you stress in the metro or queue at the mall; next time you flirt or are bored and frustrated cleaning your (or someone elses) home or waiting for the bathroom - imagine it's a dancenumber. Classical, musical, folk, or the latest avantgardistic piece there is. 

   If someone is pestering you - imagine them as a character in the show who any moment will break into a song-and-dance. Maybe the whole office is a choire. 

People are beautiful, and maybe the most funny beings on the planet once you start looking. But don't be afraid of the serious numbers; it's when you don't let yourself be moved it becomes a cliché.

One of the ideas of the film INVITATION is to explore the camera as a dancer, filmcuts as steps and rythm, and to reveal dance where you maybe wouldn't have thought of looking for it. 

A little dogma-dancing. 

The drums in the film were played by a danceclass on the beach in Dianna, Senegal.

   These fishermen worked at the same beach. Due to the overfishing from huge foreign companies (mainly European) there is hardly any fish left. Along the beach lie abandoned shipwrecks slowly melting in the huge waves, with nets as ragged gauze. They make a cool scenography, but honestly...  

...how about some social climatecompensation? Or try this one; how about not overfishing?

  Art and politics. Is pretentiousness forbidden? Contageous? A cliché? Even a word? 

Nuff zed. Let's dance!