Alma Söderberg
“The intention: To invent nothing – no idea, no composition, no object, no form – and to receive everything; composition, object, form, idea, picture.”
Gerhard Richter, The daily practice of painting.
My name is Alma Söderberg and I was born on the 19th of January 1983. After studying classical ballet at the royal ballet school and tap-dancing in my room I moved to Seville, Spain to study flamenco at the age of 16. After one year there I started a travel that took me to Stockholm, Paris, Madrid, back to Seville, Visby and finally Amsterdam. I decided to become a choreographer at the age of 8 but it took about 18 years until I found the right conditions to be able to make pieces. In July 2011 I graduated from SNDO and would like to mention 3 projects that seem important: COSAS, my graduation solo, A Talk , made together with Jolika Sudermann and the music and performance collective John the Houseband. In all 3 projects music, rhythm and singing are very present. I have a practice that consists in cutting things (words, images, phrases, letters, spaces in between articles etc.) out of the newspaper and will share some of the collages with you accompanied by quotes by others or comments by me that relate to the pieces I’ve made or will make.
“The spoken word is a gesture, and it’s meaning a world.” Merlau-Ponty, Phenomenology of perception.
A Talk, made together with Jolika Sudermann, pays attention to and celebrates the spoken language in all it’s banality and elevates it to the most magic there is: music. Spoken language is full of rhythm, melody, crescendos and diminuendos so the music is already there. All we had to do was listen to it.
“I like the mosaic technique, the fragments of thoughts. The power of the quote is the only one that still contains the hope that something of this or other times will survive.” César Antonio Molina
The solo project Cosas is a sung choreography of movements and languages. In 2012 I will develop the same “cosas practice” which consists in reading the newspaper, create collages, write a score out of the collages and practice the score from beginning to end over and over until premiering. The work-name of the coming piece is TRAVAIL and will be made at Hetveem Theater in co-production with Workspace Brussels.
John the Houseband is a band that consists of 6 performers that very badly want to make music. together. The Johns are: Anja Muller, Dennis Deter, Roger Sala Reyner, Melkorka Sigridur Magnusdottir, Hendrik Willekens and myself. We have made a few shows and one full length performance so far but this is just the beginning of John the Houseband.