With Whatever you want, Ludvig Daae wants to explore how we can think differently about expressions of national identity. As a child in Hallingdal in Norway, he went to folk dance and loved to jump around in his folk costume. Today it feels a bit unpleasant. Right-wing extremists are trying to take over the discussion of national identity in Scandinavia and today Daae experiences that more and more attributes from the folk culture have been distorted to become the expression of nationalism and racism. For that reason, he has opened his eyes to folk dance again.
The work with Norrdans will be based on the dancers in the company and their background and nationalities. The goal is to create a new type of folk dance that shows that the folk culture is originally a mixture of several cultures and therefore can not really be owned by nationalists. A dance that is inclusive and in constant change and development. Ludvig is eager to not appropriate cultural references or make a kind of medley of ethnic dances. Instead, in an attempt to regain power over the folk attributes, he wishes to change and update the attributes, combine and blend different physical expressions and create a new, social folk dance with as broad a representation as possible. Similarly, music, costume and set design will go through the same process, where different elements are forced together so that new, unknown expressions can arise. It eventually becomes a dance that is difficult to define as one or the other and in this way all people in Sweden represent by being singular in themselves and larger than the combination of their properties.
Whatever you want want to target the young and young adult audience. Rather than a traditional theater situation with a sitting audience, Daae wishes the dance to happen around, among and perhaps with the visitors. Like a dance-floor or a gathering in a assembly room so we can do what you want to work with the dance as a social event where the audience and Norrdans together create a context that explores how we can look differently on national identity and community.
Ludvig creates room, light and costume together with the costume designer and interaction artist Tove Berglund. In close collaboration, they design the visual concept of the work where all expressions work together to maximize the audience’s experience. For the past 10 years, Tove has worked on The Norwegian Opera, MDT and Stockholm, Malmö and Uppsala’s city theaters with Ludvig as a recurring and close partner. In her work, she often explores lustful interaction, prevailing conventions, and good taste.
Whatever you want – trailer
Ludvig Daae about Whatever you want
