In the weeks leading up to the first two Digital Leap learning modules we will introduce the participants properly. Let’s meet the seven artists from Sweden!
Johan Bandholtz is a dancer and choreographer from Stockholm and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Performance from Stockholm University of the Arts. He also holds university degrees in psychology and in gender studies. Since 2019 he has been working together with colleague, dancer and choreographer Anna Näsström on “Ongoing realities”, an explorative choreographic project centered around digital technology. Bandholz is interested in the intersection(s) of contemporary dance and choreography, technology and neuropsychology and in the psychology of creativity and finding strategies for creative collaborations in contemporary choreography.
Bandholtz will join the first module in Prague with the aim to delve into the different aspects of digitalization: ”Besides my interest in interdisciplinary work with dance and choreography at the creative level, I am equally interested in a critical yet nuanced reflection around the ever expanding digital landscape we are living in”
Majula Drammeh studied at the School of Dance and Circus in Stockholm and received her BA from Laban Center London. Further she holds a MA in museology from Lunds University as well as an MA in performing arts from Stockholm University of Arts. She works as a performer, dancer, maker and has performed in works by and collaborated with several choreographers, artists and groups in Sweden and abroad. She has performed in art galleries, streets, abandoned clubhouses, dark rooms as well as dance and theatre stages. Drammeh is well invested in immersive and interactive work and gives workshops in interactive methods for performers and dancers and arts students.
Drammeh will participate in the second module and sees digital as a new medium for her artistic work: “Instead of squeezing my art into a digital form I am interested in getting to know the digital better so that I can make work for that specifically”
Khamlane Halsackda is a choreographer/performer. He graduated from Rambert School and was employed by Richard Alston Dance Company. Since then he has worked for several companies and projects, most recently for Nigel Charnock + company. His own dance theatre and social comment based performances are focussed on creating discussion and debate around identity. Halsackda also creates performative concepts for galleries including installations ‘Permission to grieve’ and ‘An exercise in learning Swedish’. He is a member of Nya Rörelsen, a collective of choreographers based in Malmö, Sweden.
Halsadcka will participate in the first module. He views new digital media as a way to connect with the modern technological world, but sees also the different perspectives it can create around his art. “This will be a way to both broaden and challenge my own perspective about my own creative work and audience engagement.”
Kipat Kahumbu is a multi-disciplinary artist who has spent the last decade refining his practices across Europe. He spent his earlier years developing to become an architect and later pursued his career in performance art and has continued to broaden his artistic capabilities as a dancer, pedagogue, film maker, choreographer and director. He aspires to connect the field of performance art, more concretely with the fields of installation and immersive art, combining his practices to create unique and avant-garde experiences.
Kahumbu will be traveling to Prague for the first module and aims to employ digital tools in his future installations: ”Using dance as the narrative medium, and film/photography as the visual documentation method, I would like to explore creative ways and channels in which to present my work.”
Tove Klang is a Swedish dancer and choreographer in the contemporary field. She trained at Iwanson school of contemporary dance in Munich and has worked nationally and internationally through the years. In 2017, she moved back to the west of Sweden where she now works on a freelance basis to create and perform on traditional as well as alternative venues. Finding new ways to create and include the dance art in people’s lives are a big inspiration and essential in her works. She gladly collaborates with artists in other fields such as circus, art and music.
Klang will participate in the second module in Vilnius and sees digital environments as channels for both promotion and creation: ”I want both to be able to promote me and my work, but also to be able to learn more about how I can incorporate technology as part of creative projects.”
Anna Näsström is a Swedish freelance dancer and choreographer based in Stockholm. She is educated at The Stockholm University of the Arts and has studied in New York, and worked in Sweden and Europe as an artist for twelve years. Näsström also has a background in social, non-institutionalised dance forms, Ballroom culture, a strong connection to club culture and “streetdance” in different ways. Her recent engagements include producing and performing “Ongoing realities”. In her own artistic process she is exploring bodily memory. Simultaneity, multitudes and interdisciplinary collaboration interests her as well as keeping the process latent. Näsström combines her artistic practice with studies in social anthropology and political science.
Näsström will join the second module and is looking forward to connecting with new ideas and people: “This module can expand our possibilities working with digital technology and performing arts, as well as sharing experiences and possible collaborative methods. I am also interested in the social and cultural aspect around work with digitality or virtuality. What can this technology create and how may we as artists shape it?“
Daniel Jeremiah Persson is a dancer and choreographer holding a Bachelor Honours degree from London Contemporary Dance School. He has been working as a freelance dancer internationally and nationally for many choreographers and companies. As a choreographer he is interested in topics on gender- and cultural identity, which is something he often explores in a norm creative way through the use of space, sound, costume and visual art. He has choreographed works, in and out of collaborative contexts, that have been presented in theatres and site specific environments around Europe and South Korea. Persson is a member of choreographers collective Nya Rörelsen.
Persson will take part in the module number two: “This will allow me to find new ways to integrate a digital presence/identity in my artistic vision, both organisationally, structurally and by giving my craft new dimensions and thus influencing my projects aesthetically.”
