Projects
We as Cats
We as Cats is a dance performance that focuses on girls’ thoughts about sisterhood and the power of being able to fantasize. With catty dances, furry dreams, pulsating sounds and voices, the two human cats, Amanda and Evelina, invite you to a place where sisterhood is the general norm. Here we give each other the power, time and encouragement to be who we want to be. We dance and move through a weave of dreams. We define sisterhood as an act of friendship, as feminism, as resistance and as all our truths interwoven.
MEOW!
Dance by Evelina Gustafsson & Amanda Billberg
Choreography by Amanda Billberg
Music by Kenneth Cosimo
Scenography by Agnes Ersson
Photography and video by Daniel Pherson
Research in collaboration with Ellinor Ljungkvist
Premiere at 4:e Teatern, Västerås, October 22 2020
With support from Region Västmanland, Teatermaskinen, Västmanlandsmusiken, Tjejjouren Ronja, Stockholms konstnärliga högskola, c.off, 4:e Teatern
Koreografiska utflykter
Koreografiska utflykter (Choreographic excursions) is a participant-based performance for the preschool and families where the children get to explore the forest through dance and movement based on their terms.
How does the path move and how do we move off the path? We dance in moss and grass, among treetops and clouds, along paths and streams. During the excursion we meet the sounds of the forest, and animals, we visit needles and ants, we balance on rocks, feel the bark and get acquainted with the roots of the trees. In a playful and exploratory way, we get to know the forest together through dance and imagination.
Choreographic idea by Jannine Rivel
Choreography and dance by Jannine Rivel and Amanda Billberg
Costume by Carina Marklund
With support from Mer Dans åt Folket, Studio Skaftarp, Region Sörmland, Scenkonst Sörmland, Eskilstuna Kommun and Region Jönköpings Län within DANSSpår
Trailer (YouTube)
Grejsimojs
GREJSIMOJS is an outdoor performance that takes place by your window, under your balcony or perhaps in your garden. Through the site’s specific environment, we explore concepts such as proximity, organic structures and empathy. We meet around thoughts, dreams and memories in improvisation-based scores and among sensorial things, e.g. a floral helmet and a teddy bear skirt.
Choreography and dance by Jannine Rivel and Amanda Billberg
Trailer (YouTube)
I’m not afraid of anything
Duration 06:22
A film by Amanda Billberg and Daniel Pherson
Presented at Korundi, Rovaniemi Art Museum as part of the exhibition Spirit of “North” vol. 10. September 21st 2019 – January 25th 2020
I don’t dream anymore
Duration 04:50
A film by Amanda Billberg and Daniel Pherson
Presented at Korundi, Rovaniemi Art Museumas part of the exhibition Spirit of “North” vol. 10. September 21st 2019 – January 25th 2020
I’m never satisfied
Duration 04:37
A film by Amanda Billberg and Daniel Pherson
Presented at Korundi, Rovaniemi Art Museum as part of the exhibition Spirit of “North” vol. 10. September 21st 2019 – January 25th 2020
Cat talk
Cats are symbolic for rebirth and resurrection, with their nine lives. They are night creatures who mythologically often have been associated with darkness and magic, depicted in close relation to goddesses or witches.
In Cat talk you will meet the human cat Amanda in a dreamy talk about fears. She will invite you to read a furry fear card with her and then offer you a catty dance as response to it. Cat talk is a playful yet honest search through a motley landscape of fears, nightmares and the unconscious. You will also meet her purring cat Mara who has the ability to winkle out and heal the most hidden fears.
Performed at Korundi, Rovainemi Art Museum as part of the group exhibition Spirit of “North” vol. 10.
Concept by Amanda Billberg
Photo by Daniel Pherson
Sound by Kenneth Cosimo
Light by Jukka Huitila
Performances 2019 – 2020
September 20th
September 21st
November 3rd
January 25th
We As A Thing
Through catty dances, intimate conversations, furry dreams, prancing sounds and voices in a softly knitted space, the two performers, Amanda and Ellinor, explore relations between their present bodies, memories and fictive futures.
We As A Thing is a project that focuses on female experiences around desire, intimacy and fantasy. The project is an experimentation with ideas of the self as well as a play of infinite boundaries between bodies, materials and temporalities. Tangling through a multiplicity of possible articulations and re-articulations, fantasy acts as a potentially subversive force. From within the physical experience of the female body – from her skin and blood – the project interweaves bodies of knowledge and desire, whilst in dialogue with conceptions of the feminized body and the narratives of those who inhabit them.
We As A Thing was created together with Ellinor Ljungkvist in the context of Amanda Billberg’s master studies in choreography at DOCH, School of Dance and Cirkus. Presented at c.off in May 2019 as part of the shared evening Soup Night Special together with Alice MacKenzie.
Sound by Kenneth Cosimo
Photo by Daniel Pherson
Supervisors: Emily Roysdon, Nasim Aghili.
With great support from c.off
FALLING IN
A series of choreographic events that derives from an interest in dealing with notions of Falling and Collapsing as possible means of transformation.
A Fall is a movement between one place and another. It can be a dramatic event, a process of uncertainty, of risk and exhilaration. A fall can also be something totally ordinary, an everyday situation of exhalation or it can be an act of resistance against all those upward things
Falling in Forest
The film ‘Falling in forest’ was made for the group exhibition Spirit of North vol. 7 at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in August 2017. It was filmed in Aizu in the Fukushima prefecture in north of Japan.
Falling in Silver
With speculations on values, belonging and the state after a crisis Falling in silver operates as a public therapy session.
Falling in Silver was performed at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum as part of the exhibition Spirit of “North” vol. 7 in August 2017.
With support from the The Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Falling in Busan
Falling like an object
Falling out of control
Falling object; Brick
Repeat the fall
Falling slow.
Performed at Busan Station on August 31, 2016 as part of the 12th International Open Arts Project in Busan.
Sound design by Simon Whetham.
Brick Chair Collapse
The film was made during a residency from August to September 2016 at Flower village open art studio in Busan, Korea as part of the 12th International Open Arts Project.
The film was made by Masto and Amanda Billberg.
« 31 December 2015, 11:15 AM »
On the morning of 31 December, in Gardur, a small town in the west of Iceland.
We are in an abandoned retirement home.
A wheelchair and this infinite empty corridor call out to me.
I tie the camera to a cart that I’ve found in the kitchen and I suggest Amanda to walk across the place but in reverse.
She asks, “Okay, what are we doing? “
I reply “Nothing, I’m just your dog”
A film by Masto and Amanda Billberg
Duration 6:53 minutes
Presented at Fresh Winds Biennale in Gardur, Iceland, Stockholm Dansfilmfestival at Zita Folkets Bio in Stockholm, Dansens Hus foyer in Stockholm
With support from The Swedish Arts Grant Committee.
ANGRY STORIES
Disapproval of emotional >>scenes<< leads to fear of strong emotion, fear of one’s own anger and hatred. Fear of anger and hatred combined with a lack of self-confidence in one’s ability to cope with and change the world, or even to affect in the slightest way one’s own destiny, leads to a mindless belief that the world and most people in it are nice and the most banal, trivial amusements are great fun and deeply pleasurable.
– Valerie Solanas, SCUM Manifesto
Choreography by Ellinor Ljungkvist
Dance by Amanda Billberg, Ida Hellsten, Miranda Wallmon, Sonja-Riitta Laine
Photo by Lotta Persdotter
Filmed by Daniel Pherson
Performances 2019
Oktober 25 – 27 Örebro länsteater Nya China
November 7 Sjöängen Askersund
November 8 – 9 Kulturum Lindesberg
November 15 – 16 Dansens hus “Late night”
With support from Örebro Region, Örebro Länsteater, Dansens Hus, Stockholm, Sjöängen Askersund, Kulturrum, Lindesberg.
She puts her claws in you
A duo piece where we embody angry stories to show what it feels like to really feel. The stories are told by Ellinor, Amanda and Ida but performed by Amanda and Ida.
Idea, storytelling & choreography by Ellinor Ljungkvist
Storytelling & dance by Amanda Billberg & Ida Hellsten
Choreographic advice Gunilla Heilborn
Light design by Hannele Philipson & Sofia Limosa
Video documentation by José Figuero
Photo by Anna Ljungkvist
Performed at Danscentrum Stockholm in May 2018.
It’s ok to be slow
A storytelling performance developed and performed together with Amanda Billberg, Ida Sidenvall, Miranda Wallmon, Sonjis Laine, Francesca Lindén and Julie Rasmussen.
Concept by Ellinor Ljungkvist
Performed at ÖBKHL Örebro Art Gallery 2017 and at Stockholm Fringe Festival 2018.
With support from Örebro Region and ÖBKHL Örebro Art Gallery
DISCO
Disco is a fictional love story about two best friends that from the beginning sees themselves as unconventional and free women. They have no future plans nor visions of sharing their lives in a twosome partnership. They mostly just want to hang out with each other, listen to 90´s disco music and go out to dance at the club. They feel free and unbound. Celebrating their close friendship. Till one night when one of them meets a very special person, which changes everything. The love story gets unfolded through an album of 90´s disco music. Each track represents a scene of love, jealousy or disagreements.
Idea by Ellinor Ljungkvist
Choreographed and performed by Amanda Billberg and Ellinor Ljungkvist
Media and photography by Anna Ljungkvist
Light Tomas Fridborg and Johan Dahlström
Performed at Martin Mutter in Örebro.
Modus Operandi
Modus operandi is a fictional landscape, an elastic string and a heavy stone.
Follow the seven patterns. Emotional nature. Unchangeable movement. Elastic resonance. She as sound. Affected by black sand. Fall to the floor. Wishing for snow.
Created and performed by Amanda Billberg
Sound by Simon Whetham
Photo by Lucie Jean
Presented in January 2016 at Art Biennale Fresh Winds in Gardur, Iceland.
With support from The Swedish Arts Grant Committee.
Subduction
Subduction takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another and sinks into the mantle of the earth. Amanda Billberg and Simon Whetham use movement and sound to create an immersive sensory experience, taking the audience on a journey into the heart of this volcanic and volatile island.
Created and performed by Amanda Billberg and Simon Whetham.
Presented in January 2016 at Art Biennale Fresh Winds in Gardur, Iceland.
With support from The Swedish Arts Grant Committee.
ALLX
A performance by CeliDance
Choreography and dance by Linn Lundmark, Sanna Lundström, Amanda Billberg
Music by Michael Åberg
Video by Seize the Frame
Photo by Peter Lundström and Mikael Ståhl
Supported by Dans i Västerbotten, NorrlandsOperan, Skellefteå kommun, Statens Kulturråd, Region Västerbotten, Danscentrum Norr, Seize The Frame, Studiefrämjandet i Umeå
71BODIES 1DANCE
Concept, choreography and dance by Daniel Mariblanca
Producer and tour manager, Camilla Svingen
Video design by Ursula Kaufmann
Dramataurgy by Amanda Billberg
Light design by Jon Eirik Sira
Tour technician, Mathias Grønsdal
Photography by Mar C Llop
Music by Gunnar Innvær
Music by Miriam Casal Madinabeitia
Guess the diagnosis
Guess the diagnosis is a performance where you as an audience participate in diagnosing what happens on stage during the performance. Who is actually sound, normal, not ”impaired” and how do you recognise such an individual.
Dance by Alexandra Karagianni, Eva Svaneblom, Johan Andersson, Joakim Ågren, Linus Sundqvist
Choreography by Amanda Billberg, Eva Svaneblom
Sound by Kenneth Cosimo
Scenography by Fathia Mohidin
Photo by Gunne Ramberg
Film by Mirjam Hector
Performed at Västmanlands teater in Västerås, Teatermaskinen in Riddarhyttan, Ålsta Folkhögskola in Sundsvall
Private: Group 5
Group 5 | Feminist Perspectives is a series of workshops that focuses on the format as the applied methodology. At each workshop five women are invited to work together by reflecting on feminism and collectiveness through one’s own art. The workshops take place at Teatermaskinen in Riddarhyttan and at WELD in Stockholm.
Invited artists 2018 & 2019
Linn Ragnarsson, Ulrika Berg, Eva Svaneblom, Sybrig Dokter, Eleanor Campbell, Agnes Ersson, Järva Engman, Sanna Blennow, Charlotte Ostritsch, Felicia Sol, Carima Neusser, Tanja Andersson, Mirjam Hector, Josefin Gladh, Oda Brekke, Alice McKenzie.
RAI RAI | ruminate artistic ideas <> ruminate artistic ideas is a gratification-dinner held by Group 5 for the local artists of Riddarhyttan and the residence artists of Västmanlandsmusiken’s Dance & Circus residence program at Teatermaskinen. The dinner is an attempt to bring artists together that are engaged in an artistic process at the same time, in the same geographic area, to offer a chance to ruminate together on their current creative states.
Concept by Amanda Billberg and Ellinor Ljungkvist
Contact
Amanda Billberg
Dancer and Choreographer
Photo: Lucie Jean