• Works / Performances

    The Academy

    “A very big tree will break”

    What is a moderate amount of generosity? Can astrology be harmful? What star sign are you? And can you make it next tuesday?

    The Academy gathers to rebuild and to talk. It is a place where any subject can be useful, even if is used a little bit less.

    The performers Kristiina Viiala, Johan Thelander, Zoe Poluch and Ludvig Dae discuss, wander, walk patterns, sing and dance. They form the academy, or at least they are the members that came – most of the others are dead. Together they will start the rebuilding. Maybe they will plant some trees.

    Co-production: Potsdam Fabrik and Dansens Hus through the Culture programme of the European Union with MODUL Dance.With Support by: Arts Council Sweden, Stockholm City Council and the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.

    Media about Akademien:

    “Akademien shimmers with humor and happy humanity …. I cannot help but love the performance”
    Örjan Abrahamsson, Swedish Daily, Dagens Nyheter
    “There is something incredibly sympathetic in the whole tone around Akademien”Thomas Olsson, Nummer
    “Naturally full of absurd qualities in the quiet laconic with which Heilborn and co once again expresses our longing for meaning and context….everyone has their theories of life, and when they rub together a rare humor arises. It is easy to sympathize with this collection of searchers that reflects contemporary human confusion and the belief that civilization was perhaps more honest in the time of feather pens.”Anna Åström, Swedish Daily Svenska Dagbladet

    Performers:

    Zoë Poluch has danced a lot and acted a little. She started off in Canada, made her way to Brussels and is presently in Stockholm. She recently finished her Masters Degree in Choreography at the University of Dance where she instigated alternative models of working together and choreography as a structural and organizational capacity. This is her first project with Gunilla Heilborn.

    Johan Thelander works as a dancer and business developer with a focus on sustainable and cooperative organizing. He carries a Master degree in choreography from the University of Dance and Circus in Stockholm and has collaborated with several choreographers and companies in Sweden and Europe.

    Kristiina Viiala has worked in the fields of dance, performance, film and physical theater. Currently she works with Gunilla Heilborn’s performance Akademien and in a collaborative project with the actor Mattias Fransson with premiere 2013.

    Ludvig Daae is a Norwegian dancer and choreographer working mostly  in Stockholm and Brussels. Ludvig is currently touring with his own solo MM and with Romantic Afternoon by German choreographers Sebastian Schulz and Verena Billinger. This year he is also working with Robin Jonsson and has started a project in collaboration with choreography worker Marie Kagrell due to premiere 2013.