I want to say a few words about story telling and the strong influence that stories can have upon us. After a total of 5 years living abroad and of witch I now spent 7 months in Israel I finally have a sense of home longing. It took its time, and it is not the most obvious things about Sweden that I miss. I miss the content sound of our familys tee cooker, the pictures of old happy people on the yoghurt packages and I miss the stories. Stories about all kinds of stupid details like; how the actor from a children’s tv show changed his voice so radically that after recording for a week it took him two days to get back into his normal pitch again. Or about the man who shot deer from his living room window in the middle of a suburban village, with neighbouring gardens not more then 20 meters from his house. Stories about the Swedish fauna and how to predict the seasons; they used to say, many berries in the tree means a cold winter. Then there is the story about the little boy who travelled over the whole country on the back of a goose, that is a very famous one that even has got a place on our “20 kronor” paper bills
Maybe this longing for my own stories comes out of being here at Clipa. They know their stories here and they tell them beautifully. In general I think Israel is rich in this tradition. But even though we can share many of them despite a geographic distance. I found that a world of stories that I grew up with has been missing me for many years. I felt a need to revive mine by sharing them again. When a story is told it is added into a consciousness where it becomes a part of our associations and our references. In this place of consciousness it doesn’t matter what kind of story it was anymore, if it was true or not, or if it was a good or a really bad one. What is important is that it adds into our little monocle with witch we look down at the world and at our existence. It becomes something that we can relate to. And now by being detached for many years from certain common stories I suddenly felt like my references where not relevant or not existing any more, because they where not shared.
I felt the need to travel back into my old stories that in my growth laid a foundation to associations and thoughts I have today and to look at them again. Maybe you can call it a need to look for something Swedish in me. As I started to work on my solo for Clipa Aduma this became a major influence. The research became a journey for me back into my own culture where I passed through folksongs, folktales, stop motion films and old childhood heroes
בול של בילבי- גיבורת ילדות שוודית ידועה
Now I look forward to participate and to be spectator in Clipa Aduma. Lets share some more stories. I show you mine and you show me yours. And then we share a few more eyes on the world together.
I also want to shout out a little for my skandiavian neighbours, Jo Stromgren Kompani, who are performing in the festival, is making one of very few appearances outside Europe this year. This company is special; they are independent and witty, keeping their own profile and style while still continuing to appear at big scenes around the world. Apart from their specific structure and individual aesthetics they are also interesting because they have developed a specific technique for nonsense language; a verbal language that is based on a dialect without meaning anything at all. This, my friends is story telling on an inventive and high international level! They are going to give us a tale worth experiencing, so lets go and see it and add that it into our little life monocle as well.
Hope to see you at the festival
Sandrina Lindgren, Intern at Clipa Theatre, January – July 2010
As You Hear an evening with six short pieces: July 15th 20.30 and 16th 13.00 and 22.00
A Dance tribute to the art of football” Jo Stromgren Kompani at La Naqaat in Jaffa: July 16th 13.00 and 17th at 21.00
