This weekend's openers for Global Dance Fest 2009 will appeal to artists across the board, Danish choreographer Palle Granhoj said.
"My kind of dance performances are much more for people outside the dance community than people inside the dance community," Granhoj said. "So, some of the most interesting responses we get is from musicians and singers and other art fields than the dance community. It's not traditional. It's definitely not 'dance' dance."
This year's five-week festival features dance companies from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Greenland.
Organizer Marjorie Neset, who handpicked the companies while visiting performances in Europe, said the dances stand out for being particularly theatrical.
"The art is cerebral - some gloomy and some quite slapstick," she said.
Granhoj has run his dance company, Granhoj Dans, for 20 years in Aarhus, Denmark.
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His piece, "Obstrucsong," combines movement and vocalization, which he acknowledged is hard work for the performers. He developed this technique, called "obstruction," of combining voice and dance - there's no canned music on the speakers.
The big white carpet used in "Obstrucsong" refers to snow and ice, and the stage lighting could refer to northern lights, Neset said.
"It's a special way of using your voice where you go for the natural voice, not the trained voice," Granhoj said. "You more go for the effort and natural voice because you're running around, dancing and also singing at the same time."
Friday through Sunday, "Obstrucsong" will be performed at VSA North Fourth Art Center. Sunday will also be the second showing of the solo piece titled "(.it is a very big secret.)," performed by Anne Eisensee, a member of Granhoj Dans. Space for Thursday's world premier of the piece is filled up. Granhoj said solo pieces aren't his favorite to watch but that Eisensee's is exceptional.
"She's playing piano; she's playing a Turkish violin - a very strange sound," Granhoj said. "She's playing a cello, and she is also composing on the computer. And she's singing. She can sing the heart out of man or woman. And she's also dancing. Moving, I would say.. She's a strange woman. Strange! And I tell her every day, 'Anne, you are strange.' And she says, 'Oh, I am just myself.'"
Donna Jewell, head of UNM's dance program, said she has worked with dancers in the Scandinavian region and noted their quality of imagination and their approach to lighting.
"Scandinavians are not really European or are they Russian - they really have their own sensibility," Jewell said. "You can tie it to some of their folktales like the Finnish folk tales always gravitating to the North Pole. People ride swans to the North Pole. It's not like the Grimms' fairy tales in the dark forests in Germany. And they have a really different relationship with the sun and light. Because of the dark winters and the really long summer days where the sun will set at midnight and come back at 2 in the morning, there's a different feeling about how they see light and use light."
Granhoj held a workshop with UNM dance students Wednesday morning.
"It was kind of groundbreaking for our students to see him work, to see his approach to choreography," she said. "For example, if you move in a space, you have to bring your foot back to the original place, and you have to touch yourself - slap or slide your hand down your leg, and you have to say one line from a love song. And then he just looked at the student and said, 'You have seven minutes to make something.' So instead of him showing movement and the students copying the moment, he gave them rules."
Jewell stressed that Albuquerque is lucky to have Dance Fest.
"Our students would not see this work otherwise," she said. "This changes their lives in the most fundamental way."
For a full listing of tickets, times and dance companies, visit VsArtsNm.org.
