efva lilja

I first encountered the remarkable Swedish choreographer Efva Lilja through her books Dance, For Better For Worse (2004) and Words on Dance (2003). But I’d never met her in person until late last year on a bloody freezing day in Leeds at Error and Creativity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium. She gave a keynote that day and I made a few very rough notes which I’ve included below. The notes give a sense of the breadth of her thinking and ideas, but not any sense of her drive, presence and beautiful playfulness.

• “I am what I do not know, I am what I lack”
  
• “technologies of listening”
  
• “knowledge generation” in Europe
  
• what’s at stake?
  
• the values: what we value
  
• can’t force the outcome
  
• hypothetical questions
  
• “question of cliches is an urgent one”
  
• “and question of contention is as well”
  
• “how to create new demands on institutions and the academy”
  
• training: reduces the dancer to a body
  
• “ability to recognise difference has to be trained”

Efva’s website: www.efvalilja.se Efva on wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efva_Lilja