Exploring them-driven storytelling is a research enquiry involving Maria Hedman Hvitfeldt,  Mamdooh Afdile and Alexander Skantze. The cinematic language of (conventional) film is dominated by classical Aristotelian structure with a clear beginning, middle, and end, main characters, and a progressing plot. Although this kind of dramatic structure has proven beneficial in telling engaging stories, many stories fall outside these structures (real-life stories, spiritual stories, non-rational stories, etc.). Telling such stories in the classical way (on the textual or visual level) might consequently require a significant artistic compromise to fit within this structure. The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential of the theme-based storytelling approach as a means of inspiration for telling a compelling story that is too complex to be told classically (e.g., a spiritual story driven by memory or lacking a clear protagonist). In a collaborative work, this artistic research group has examined a theme-based approach in three practices: writing a story, visualizing it, and adapting it to a screenplay. Namely, the process includes the following stages i) Writing a story inspired by a true/fake memory as them (by Maria Hedman Hvitfeldt), ii) visualizing the story while remaining true to the theme (by Mamdooh Afdile), and iii) exploring thematic vs. classic screenplay (by Alexander Skantze). The findings were publicly presented at an artistic research seminar at Stockholm University of the Arts in January 2023.

This text aims to show my collaborative artistic work with suriashi, a Japanese walking technique used in performing and marital arts, as a performative gesture and ritual. It is based on my own practice with master Nishikawa Senrei in Kyoto as part of my studies in traditional Japanese dance since 2000. It asks how artistic techniques could become more activist and critical, while asking questions about and to contemporary spaces.

The aim of this study is to describe and explore the phenomenon of assessment in dance education within the Swedish upper secondary schools’ dance orientation. The phenomenon was researched based on teachers’ experiences of assessment in dance education and formulations in the syllabi for upper secondary school. Life-world phenomenology constituted a base for the study. The methods used in the investigation were document analysis, observations, teachers’ written and verbal reflections and interviews. Documentation of observations was made through field notes, video recordings and sound recordings. The generated material was analysed based on Spiegelberg’s (1960) seven stages of phenomenological analysis. Syllabi from Lpf94 and Gy11 were researched to describe and analyse in what ways dance knowledge becomes visible. In total, five teachers and three schools were involved in the study. Within the framework of the course Dance technique 1, observations of dance education in ballet, contemporary- and jazz dance were made as well as of ten grade conferences. The teachers read the field notes and were able to change formulations in case something was misunderstood or it needed to be commented on in the form of teachers’ written or verbal reflections. Interviews with four of the observed teachers were made and the conversations related to what appeared in the observations. Comprehension of teachers’ experiences resulted in a description of the phenomenon and answers to the research questions. The study is communicated through four intertwined papers. The result reveals various conditions for assessment in dance education. Two themes appeared in the overall findings of the study, namely: The design of the assessment practice and Communication within the assessment practice. The syllabi appeared as one condition among others for dance education in upper secondary school including views of dance knowledge that appeared through analysis of the syllabi. In the assessment practice, it was seen that teachers’ conduct of assessment involved conditions for formative assessment to emerge. Conditions in order for communicated assessment to become meaningful for the students also emerged, including shared understanding. The teachers expressed various conditions for the assessment practice to became visible, namely the students’ participation, their own actions, as well as the overall school context. The study contributes to the dance educational research field through making teachers’ experiences of assessment in Swedish dance education visible. The thesis discusses dance teachers’ various approaches to syllabi, how the teachers’ conceptions of quality influence the assessment practice, and finally the importance of shared understanding of communicated assessment is emphasised. Furthermore, collegiate discussions are brought to the attention as a way to improve and reflect upon assessment.Keywords: upper secondary school, dance education, assessment, life-world phenomenology

Am I Human? challenges societal and performative norms surrounding disability and interrogates the boundaries of humanity. By using live performance methods to foreground lived experiences, Am I Human?  initiates critical discussions about identity, agency, and embodiment, recognizing the disabled body as performative and inviting audiences to confront biases and advocate for inclusivity. Asking, “What can be discovered about disabled and identity performativity in relation to how identity is constructed, revealed, and expressed?”, the project explores the intersection of disability, identity, and performance, highlighting an individual’s agency in shaping alternative narratives. Am I Human?  will contribute to discussions on emerging technologies' ethical implications and the disabled’s potential for resistance and innovation. Methods involve performance tools and techniques, media and performance analysis, engagement with post humanist discourse, and academic writing, thereby situating the work within performative and media-based practices. Objectives include challenging normative perceptions of identity, amplifying marginalized voices, and contributing insights into the performativity of identity from a hidden disability perspective. Structured into four phases, including explorations of scenography, the role of the disabled body, bodily augmentations, and materiality, it culminates in a presentation of findings realized as a series of opera scenes. Documentation and exposition will address ethical issues such as dignity, representation, informed consent, and intersectionality. Am I Human?  contributes to wider discussions on disability rights, social justice, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies.

This practice-led PhD-thesis draws on an existing Japanese movement practice called suriashi, which translates as sliding foot. Suriashi is a specific gender codified walking technique in classical Japanese dance and theatre, and an important method for acting on stage. It is one of the foundations for how the performer positions him/herself for movement on stage. My thesis asks whether suriashi could also be a method to act, as being active, or to activate, in other spaces outside the theatre. A key feature is the practical application of this artistic practice outside the theatrical contexts where it is usually located. This relocation brings a traditional form into new configurations, connecting to everyday practices and sites of resistance and performance. It also contributes to the burgeoning field of walking arts practice, bringing a Japanese dance-based practice into a dialogue with debates and practices of Western dancing and walking. The practice-led research includes suriashi walks, labelled as ‘experimental pilgrimages’, which are documented especially for the thesis. They have been captured on video and serve as material evidence of what kind of questions and answers suriashi as experimental pilgrimage activated. The video documentations, to which readers are guided to through specific links and timecodes, provide the possibility to experience suriashi walking both visually and corporeally. They also represent the artistic artefact and outcome of this practice-led research. The video capturing suriashi adds to an expanded perspective on screendance as durational artistic practice. The thesis shows how suriashi embodies ideologies, such as gender, as well as discussing how our presence in urban spaces is always gendered. Suriashi as a gendered technique provided a tool for walking with integrity - a flâneuse strategy - which led to the application of suriashi for political engagement through embodiment.

Cross-gender acts have saturated Japanese performance history, with men and women using gender as a performative act. This practice-led article investigates gendered embodiment and gendered spaces through the Japanese dance and walking technique suriashi (which translates as sliding foot). It is practiced in traditional Japanese performing arts and in martial arts. Gender in traditional Japanese dance/Nihon Buyō is constructed physically through the positioning and moulding of the body, as well as through costume and cross-dressing. The original suriashi practice is performed in the dance studio or on stage, however my research asks whether suriashi could also be a method to act, as being active, or to activate, in other spaces outside the theatre. I exemplify gendered perspectives through a suriashi walk by myself and the drag queen Bruno the Bad Boy at the yearly Saiin Kasuga Shrine Festival in Kyōto. I propose that the suriashi style created to impersonate women is not only a gender construction, it is also a reminder of the continuous absence of women in Nō and Kabuki theatre, resulting from the 1629-1868 ban of women from stage, the adoption of Confucian cultural values, and teachings of Buddhism. Combining extended practice-based and situated knowledge with historical accounts, I elucidate the act of ‘becoming woman’ or ‘performing as woman’ in traditional Japanese dance. This helps to process a global conservatory performer training as well as processing gender issues in the contemporary society, explored through gender theories, performing Hélène Cixoux’s sexual difference and Judith Butler’s gender trouble.

I det konstnärliga forskningsprojektet Lethe—med utgångspunkt i den antika grekiska mytologiska floden Lethe—undersökte forskarna och musikerna Andreas Hiroui Larsson [trummor], Johan Jutterström [saxofon], och Anna Lindal [fiol], glömska som metod för en konstnärlig process. I den grekiska mytologin ansågs floden Lethe besitta glömskans kraft, och forskargruppen möttes—metaforiskt—över tre års tid vid flodens strand. På grekiska betyder Lethe glömska, men också döljande, täckande och namnet är besläktat med ordet för sanning: alētheia (som innehåller ordet lēthē), vilket bokstavligen betyder avtäckande. Därmed kan glömska både orsaka ett döljande, täckande och vara en konstruktiv del i ett avtäckande. Utifrån sitt läger vid Lethes strand avsåg forskargruppen att utforska glömska i relation till deras respektive konstnärliga praktiker inom västerländsk improviserad musik och konstmusik. De avsåg också att formulera och konstruera sammanhängande teoretiska utsagor—i syfte att hjälpa sig själva och andra att navigera Lethes strömmar—, och slutligen presentera exempel på vad deras forskning lett till såväl diskursivt som konstnärligt. Den romerske poeten Vergilius skrev i sin episka dikt Aeneiden att det är först efter att vi har fått vårt minne utsuddat av Lethe som vi kan födas på nytt. Vad kommer vi vara villiga att skiljas från när vi möts vid Lethes strand och ser ut över vatten som kan tvätta bort våra tidigare musikaliska liv? 

This is a transcribed conversation between visual artist Darko Dragičević and dramaturg Synne Behrndt in connection with Dragičević's exhibition 'Exhaustion and Exuberance Or I Can, I Can’t: Four Figure Studies,' 16/6-21/08/2023, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beograd. It is included in the catalogue and documentation for the exhibition, pp. 32-44.