This November I will be heading to Sweden for a month long residency. I have been invited to join Annika Vestel and Vestelscenkonst at an art house called Tokalynga! While there we will be devising a piece about Communication. We are interested in how people develop habits of communicating with one another based on the tools they have available. There is so much more to be said on the matter in a future post, but below you can gather more info on the residency itself from Annika, our resident residency expert. Be sure to check back in on the project and my travels both on the Blog and our website.
Jonathan Taylor
Artistic Director
Hej Hej!
Tokalynga Teaterakademi is a theatre-house located on the countryside outside of Gothenburg, owned by the Swedish theatre group Teater Albatross since 1988. It is Teater Albatross’working-base, and all activities in the house are organized by or through the group. The house has two different rehearsal/performance-spaces, a big kitchen, lots of sleeping rooms, office etc., and is used in multiple different ways. In addition to rehearsing all of their plays there, Teater Albatross organizes theatre festivals, workshops, invite national and international guest artists for residencies or collaborations, concerts, seminars and more.
I got to know Teater Albatross and Tokalynga in 2011 through a workshop. Afterwards I got the possibility to move into the house, which I did, to work independently on a dance-film project idea of mine. I stayed at Tokalynga for one year, and during that time I also started to work more and more with the group and I have continued to work with them back and forth since then.
Characteristic of Tokalynga is for instance, is the so-called morning-training, which is a sort of individually oriented movement-improvisation with a short meditation exercise in the end. Robert Jakobsson (the leader of Teater Albatross) does this every day, and he always invites whoever is in the house to participate if they want to. The people in the house usually eat and cook together, though there are no strict rules at Tokalynga. It is a vivid place in constant movement and you never really know what will happen or whom you will meet!
Annika Vestel
Artistic Director of Vestel Scenkonst