Närheten/Closeness/Tove Sahlin & Shake it Collaborations/Riksteatern

Photo: Märta Tishner

In the void left by the pandemic, we crave closeness. The tender gaze, the light touch, the shared approaches. When Tove Sahlin and her company invite us to a tender dance, our shyness is transformed into the delight of being seen, touched and allowed to co-create. With Jonas Brun’s everyday existential poetry as a starting point and accompanied by Magdalena Eriksson’s contemplative violin and voice, Proximity is a curious, loving and humorous exploration of our boundaries and our longing for someone to search inside them.

Motivation of the selection jury

Something heartfelt and bombastic takes place in a carefully selected venue. The audience experience the performance from the front row, wherever they stand, as the dancers move with, between and around them. With joint forces by both performers and audience, a new social context is built in real-time. A meeting beyond words, with an engaging choreography, designed within the space and those who share it.

The performance explores closeness, our need for it and what it does to us as a group.

Choreography Tove Sahlin
Light Jonatan Winbo
Costume Pontus Pettersson
The music in the original production was composed by Josefin Runsteen, now interpreted
and adapted by Magdalena Eriksson.
Poems from the poetry collection Omsorg by Jonas Brun
Dancers for 2023
Musicians on a national theatre tour Magdalena Eriksson

Read more about the production here

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