Kunskapsdagarna 2020 focus on the possibilities in art for children and youth with special needs, using the project Scen:se as the starting point.

The Scen:se project, Folkteatern Gävleborg and Kultur Gävleborg has invited interesting and groundbreaking artists, pedagogues, researchers, relatives and culture intermediaries from Sweden and Great Britain. What they have in common is that they, in various ways, work with and takes an interest in the importance of art and culture when it comes to children and youth with disabilities.

Kunskapsdagarna was supposed to take place in Gävle and Hudiksvall on March 30-31, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is now instead presented digitally with mainly the same lecturers. The program is presented in two segments.

Segment 1 – Lectures online
Monday October 19th all of the lectures will be available at Kultimera.se. After you’ve registered, you will get a link to the site that will be active from October 19th – November 3rd. There you can watch pre-recorded seminars. This means you can do this at your own pace during the weeks the link is active.

Segment 2 – Digital workshops
Monday and Tuesday November 2nd-3rd there will be live workshops with the lecturers via Zoom. Once you’ve registered you will receive a link. The participants are Anna Pella, Lotta Frecon, Ellie Griffiths, Göran Johansson, Mikael Alfredsson and Veera Suvalo Grimberg. In addition to this, you as participants can ask questions to Eva von Hofsten and a number of the project’s artists.

Register at:
eva@scense.se


Please state name, occupation and if applicable, organization and what digital Zoom live-sessions you wish to take part in. Kunskapsdagarna is free of charge.

Last day for registering is Friday October 16th.

Read more about Kunskapsdagarna 2020 here!

Just like with Miramos, the costumes for our upcoming performance Hannah Felicia, which premieres on October 29, was created by designer Charlotte von Weissenberg. We asked her to share some of her thoughts about the creation of the constumes.

Charlotte von Weissenberg

This was the second time I worked with a Spinn production. Both times it has started out with a meeting with the cast during one of the first rehearsal sessions of the project. This time, due to the current circumstances, choreographer Lára Stefánsdóttir couldn’t be there physically, but she participated via computer.

My process starts with me looking at the dancers rehearse. This is to get a feeling of it all, and to see what type of movements they need to be able to do and what might need special attention when it comes to the costume design. Sometimes the dancers and the wheelchair are one single being. Sometimes two, sometimes three. Or at least that’s how I perceive it. Both bodies need to feel comfortable in their parts, but we also need to consider the wheelchair so that for instance nothing gets tangled up in the wheels.

“Sisters, warrior and that all is one” where the ideas that was on the table when I joined the work. Lára had also wished for a soft golden nuance. It proved that, from a practical perspective, golden fabric is not as compliant as one might hope, so therefore we instead choose a slightly more “secretive” fabric that changes character depending on how you illuminate it. During the work, everyone has had their say. Because it’s a joint project, and it’s exciting to try to understand and interpret ideas that comes bubbling up.

That the dancers are comfortable in their clothes is important to me. This means that the actual practical work with fittings is a large part of the process. It’s especially important when it comes to Felicia seeing as I can’t use myself as a reference. But this also means that I learn a lot! I always want it to be perfect from the start, but you have to take it step by step and I choose to start with the fit.

I don’t really sketch my work. Most of the design work happens in my head, where all the ideas, both my own and others, swirl around and bump into each other. Often there’s already from the start something that is clearer and more stubborn than all the others, something that becomes a magnetic center for the rest. Fragments are either sucked into the middle, or hurled into space. The end result is a compromise – always – but that in itself is not a bad ting. Compromise means collaboration, that material and needs agree, as well as time and budget, and that we as a group have listened to each other and grown as human beings.

I want the audience to experience that Hannah and Felicia belong together, but also as separate personalities. My wish is that you see the people more than the costumes. That the whole is both pure and simple but also slightly magical.

Tanzmesse 2020 was to take place at the end of August. But with so many other things, this year’s edition was cancelled due to the current situation in the world. Spinn were supposed to present the performance Miramos at the Swedish pavilion as part of the initiative Swedish Dance.

Swedish Dance presents dance from Sweden, directed towards an international audience and presented at international festivals and gatherings for performing arts. In 2020 the project was supposed to be made in the form of public showings at Internationale tanzmesse in Düsseldorf, Germany. The initiative is a cooperation between the nation spread organisations Danscentrum Stockholm, West, North and South.

Information about the choreographers and companies that were to participate at Swedish Dance can be found at www.swedishdance.org. An we of course hope to be able to participate live the next time Tanzmesse and Swedish Dance takes place!

Just before we went on vacation we received some great news! Region Västra Götaland granted our application for producing a recorded audio description of our children’s performance Miramos!

During fall and winter we will be working with audio describer company Audiosyn on developing the manuscript for the recording. We will also be working with an external reference group consisting of people with visual impairment as well as people with experience of working with audio description in performing arts. The finished result will be ready at the beginning of 2021, and then we’ll head out to perform Miramos and offer audio description for any children or youth that may need it.

We’re so happy to have this opportunity and we think and hope that this will become a model for how we can work also with upcoming performances!

Read more about the project here!