The Listeners

What happens when the experimental choreographer and dancer Alma Söderberg, who is known for her exciting and entertaining work with voice and body, meets the internationally renowned Ensemble Cullberg from Stockholm? In any case, we can look forward to great surprises!

The cooperation with Söderberg marks a new era for Cullberg, as the company will concentrate on cooperation with three renowned choreographers in the coming years: Jefta van Dinther, Deborah Hay and Alma Söderberg.

In “The Listeners”, Alma Söderberg shares her sound experiments with eight dancers. Together they explore the relationship between hearing and movement, between voice, rhythm and body. Can you hear dance? How do movements sound? In the piece, which could also be a concert, space and bodies become instruments. The dance describes the sounds, and the sounds reproduce movements – as in a fascinating vortex, sensory impressions and spatial experiences combine to form a true Gesamtkunstwerk, in which performers and the audience are equally involved: both are listeners listening to a mysterious creation.

“The Listeners” premiered in January 2020 at the Norrlandsoperan in Umeå, Sweden.

“The fourteen-year-old in me cannot believe that I will create for Cullberg. I have not had the ambition to create for a world-famous company, but when I got the invitation, I felt it was time for me to open up and share what I developed over the past ten years. Together with the dancers, I will work with the body as an instrument in the room. My works are rarely representative or narrative, what happens on stage is more like a concert, a musical exploration. The dancers will participate in creating the music they dance to live on stage. Listening is central, both to the silent movement and to the sounding”, says Alma Söderberg about her work with Cullberg.

Swedish choreographer Alma Söderberg was born and raised in Malmö. She studied at The Royal Swedish Ballet School before leaving for Sevilla and Escuela de Danza de Matilde Coral to study flamenco. She has since then, studied in Stockholm, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and Brussels. Alma Söderberg studied choreography at SNDO in Amsterdam, and graduated in 2011. During the past years, she has been based in Brussels and toured her creations to relevant venues and important festivals all over Europe. Her work is characterized by connecting dance, music and voice. Sound and movement are always intertwined, and a research of these expressions is constantly an ongoing part of Alma Söderberg’s artistry.

In 2016 she was awarded the Swedish Theatre Critics award the Thalia Prize.

Cullberg is the national and international repertoire contemporary dance company in Sweden, continuously co-creating to make cutting edge dance relevant for the many. Together with choreographers from all over the world, we are exploring ideas on how dance can be defined, produced and presented. Those explorations are the pillars of a company that is constantly in motion at the heart of the international arena. 2019-2021, Cullberg works exclusively with three associated artists: Alma Söderberg, Deborah Hay and Jefta van Dinther. The core of the company consists of 17 extraordinary individual dancers with a central role in the creations. Cullberg is led by artistic director Gabriel Smeets and managing director Stina Dahlström. Cullberg is part of Riksteatern – The Swedish National Touring Theatre.

Tip!
Sat 29.02. 13:00
Dance workshop for all
with Thomas Zamolo (Cullberg)
>>> booked out