Since 2021, I have regularly given workshops and presentations on multilingual performing arts at theatres, festivals and universities in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
The workshop is aimed at anyone interested in exploring multilingualism as a resource, both as an individual and within a societal and performing arts context. It is suitable for both students and professionals in all areas of the performing arts: production, playwriting, acting, directing, set design, theory and criticism, etc. The content and duration can be adapted to the needs and wishes of the group.
Hungry Eyes, Malmö. June 2024
I was invited to hold a workshop for ”Hungry Eyes” as part of their artistic research project. Based on my thesis we discussed the potential of performing arts in many languages, and they made their linguistic portraits.
”Hungry Eyes” are a newly formed Danish/Swedish performing arts collective, based in Stockholm, Malmö and Copenhagen that create bilingual and cross-disciplinary theatre. ”The Aesthetics of Bilingualism” is their current artistic research project that explores the potentials of stage art that blends the Danish and Swedish languages. Through this project, the artists aim to deepen their understanding of bilingual stage art”.
https://www.konstnarliga.lu.se/evenemang/hungry-eyes-aesthetics-bilingualism
Post Theatre Collective and Teater Aros, Uppsala. May 2024.
This group worked together in Uppsala for four days, starting with drawing our linguistic portraits. Based on them we investigated where the languages/dialects/varieties are placed in our bodies and what movements they can create. This resulted in a choreography of Finnish dialects… to be continued in Helsinki in August.
Supportet by Swedish-Finnish Foundation: https://kulturfonden.net/
Västerbottensteatern/Skellefteå and Oulu City Theatre. January 2024.
In January 2024 I was invited to theatres in northern Sweden and Finland, where I met actors and artistic and administrative staff. After an initial presentation of my research on the potential of multilingualism, I led a workshop on linguistic repertoires. The participants visualised and reflected on their and the audience’s languages, dialects and sociolects.
Post Theatre Collective, Helsinki. February 2023.
This workshop in Helsinki in February 2023 was part of a collaboration project with David Kozma – director and artistic leader at Post Theatre Collective. It was part of the program of the New Theatre Helsinki Festival – Who belongs to Finland. The festival raised questions such as: Which stories are told in our Finnish theatres today? From whose perspectives are they told? Which stories are untold?
The nine actors who participated in the one week long workshop spoke, to mention a few of their languages, Estonian, Northern Sami, Russian, Italian, IsiXhosa, Spanish, French, Bulgarian in addition to Finnish and Swedish. The workshop started with a mapping of their linguistic repertoires, (i.e., language, dialects, sociolects etc.) These drawings became the starting point of a sharing around experiences connected to languages. This, and other methods we have developed, will be used in the workshops.
https://www.newtheatrehelsinki.com/festival-event-multilingualismworkshop
Supportet by Swedish-Finnish Foundation: https://kulturfonden.net/
Photo: Quentin Wachter
Swedish Biennale of Performing Arts Stockholm. June 2023.
In collaboration with Uniarts Stockholm and Åsa Johannisson director, script writer and lecturer in mime- acting at Uniarts.
An exploration of the linguistic repertoires of the participants and the contemporary audience, i.e. the languages, dialects, sociolects and other varieties that a person uses in their daily interaction. Based on this, we shared experiences and asked questions about how we use our linguistic repertoire in our work with performing arts, and the possibility of using it in the development of future performing arts.