Darling Mårten

Darling Mårten, if there is any one person merited to be called the Diva of Swedish dance it is you, Mårten Spångberg. Like no one else you can do whatever you like on stage – and get the ordinary audience as well as the elite come running for tickets. Now you have new venture, the solo “Heja Sverige” (Go for it Sweden!), performed in the studio of Moderna Dansteatern on a floor that is lighted in a pattern reminding me of a hazy M.

Dressed in a Swedish national costume – complete except for a pair of trendy sneakers – and dancing to a recording of piano improvisations based on traditional musical themes played by Jan Johansson, the Swedish jazz legend. Wow, how you managed to epitomize the concept of the “Swede” (i.e. a somewhat mediocre and a bit too shy but honest person). Isn’t it a personal reflection consisting of reminiscences of Swedish folk dances? You did it? But distantly your solo reminds me of the American post modernist project, the breaking down of hierarchies to give everybody access to dance. And perhaps your aim is to encourage us Swedes and likewise inclined persons to liberate ourselves from our hang ups that stop us from doing anything we do not have a permit ...