"Perfection is not a goal"
Jon Ole Olstad is an amazing dancer who danced in NDT and in the tour project "Kamuyot", a collaboration between the Swedish Riksteatern, and Batsheva Dance Company. He is also an incredible choreographer and teacher all around the world.
-You have a really amazing career. What is the key to your successes?
I think that every dancer's journey to reach their individual goals are very different. What works for me to reach further towards my dreams, won’t necessarily work for another artist. For me personally, I have found value in not being afraid of putting myself out there and to reach out and email places/ people that I am curious to work with. It doesn’t resonate within me to sit and wait for someone to reach out to me. If I have a genuine interest in something I try to let the desire of a possible connection speak louder than the voice saying that I’m not good enough/ not talented enough etc. Sometimes I get positive responds and other times I don’t even get a response, and that’s ok. I also believe that I grew stronger and more efficient as an artist when I focused more on the why/ how of the work process instead of the “ what” I was doing. Example: why am I doing this arm movement and how does it feel/ respond/ react, instead of thinking “ what “ is this arm movement and just thinking it’s “ just” an arm movement.”
-How were you able to develop your artistry as a dancer and choreographer?
“Artistry is a tricky thing. I think it’s a fine line between vulgarity and vulnerability when speaking about artistry. Being able to find authenticity in movements on a high technical/ physical level and at the same time bring out a true artistic quality is a balance game for me. I realize more and more that it helps me to find the artistic self, the less I judge myself in the moment of dance, and to experience the experience of dancing instead of executing the dance. I also feel it comes down to your personality and self love. I feel being artistic with yourself is being able to find qualities about yourself that you love and to able yourself to accept the qualities you don’t love and acknowledge that perfection is not a goal. As humans we want to find connection. But it’s difficult and uncomfortable trying to connect with someone if they don’t let themselves be seen both with the beauty and with the ugly. “
-When you create a piece, what catches your attention in another dancer?
“My attention gets drawn to a dancer that is positive, problem solving, independent, communicative, open, hard working, original movement facilitator, prepared, vulnerable and that loves to dance, explore and take risks.”
-When can you actually define if you are satisfied with your work?
“When watching my work on myself or someone else I feel satisfied when I see the letting go of the movements and the clarification that was worked on in rehearsal, and when it looks like the movement is being born in that exact moment. A dancer and dear friend of mine described my dancing: “when you dance Jon, it looks like your improvisation is choreographed and clear but totally free and abandoned at the same time, and your set choreography looks like it’s improvised and raw. “
And I find myself satisfied when seeing my movements in that light.!
-How were you able to overcome your limits?
“I think the only way to overcome your own limits is to first address what your limitations are. Without that initial look at your own work as an artist there won’t be a lot of growth.
Then to overcome those limits there should be a process of allowing oneself to fail and fail over and over again. Without failure there won’t be a result of gaining new knowledge and thereby gaining new insights to your own dance. I take my work seriously, but not myself very seriously. I overcame my limitations by laughing a lot at myself, and to not worry about what others think about my dancing. So what if you try something new and fall on your face- you get back up again and try a hundred times more and end up with more tools in your toolbox.”
-You worked with really various choreographers. How are you able to adapt yourself to very different works?
“My degree from the national academy of the arts in Oslo, is a bachelor's degree in jazz dance. I’m very thankful for my teachers in that program, because they challenged us as students in various styles, expressions and dancing to various forms of music. The training was a lot about picking up choreography fast and making something out of the movements in a very direct way and being able to put a performance aspect to it even if it was only a regular class in a studio. This made me as a dancer think in a versatile way and to see the richness of detailed work and to guide myself into paying attention to different ways of using port de bras, rhythms, different ways of accentuating the leg work and how to express myself authentically according to what teacher we had for class.
I also think when I started teaching more myself I realized just how personal the material you make is. The dance movements are so linked to the maker's heart, physicality and mentality. I tell students that to be able to crack the code to learn a choreographers style it is important to also see who the choreographer is as a person. My personality is very extroverted, filled with humor, not afraid to show big emotions, care for people close to me and I speak before I think. And that can translate into describing the movements that come out of my body. I use a lot of big expansive movements, I can show the ugly of the body, there’s an emotional intention behind the steps and I want the set/ choreographed movements to look improvised rather than over- choreographed.”
-You are a great choreographer, what fascinates you about creating a piece?
“What fascinates me is how I try my best during a process to puzzle the work together.
My favorite part about a process is when I have building blocks of longer movement phrases, music ideas and imagery ideas and then piecing all those together. Example if i work with a group piece and I have made a solo on one of the dancers, and I have a group section and I have an idea that I want an image of a group breaking apart and I have a song that has a clear change. And then trying to find links between those pieces. The solo starting- then the solo dancer joins the group and then after the group phrase the solo dancer starts breaking off the group in the big song change. I like to think very simplistic but to work and find the magic components within that simplicity. Personalities also fascinates me in the studio when working with dancers. I like to work with dancers that engage verbally and creatively. Who brings more than just their dancers’ body to the space. I quickly feel very blocked creatively if I’m met with blank eyes and an expectation that me as a choreographer should have every single answer of making a finished piece and having dancers saying no with their body language. I am a yes person myself and I try to think there’s no such thing as a bad movement or a bad idea- it’s just less good ways of doing the movements and less good ways of problem solving the idea. “
-How can you deal with struggling in bad days and bad emotions?
“I think bad emotions and bad days are the best days to work with your art. I once told a dancer that performed a solo I made for her that it’s the days that feel the most frustrating that makes you gain the most. After telling her that, she clearly shifted her attitude towards the challenge and the quality of the movement. She befriended the troublesome and the raw and she allowed it to color her movements in another way. The solo reached another expression and created this contrast Of very strong articulated legwork but with a vulnerable and abandoned upper body.
Personally speaking I feel that the more I accept myself as the person I am, the better I dance. The more honest I can be with myself and whatever I go through the more I stop telling myself lies and stories about myself that’s perhaps not true. And I think honesty equals more authenticity and that it can be a positive influence in your dancing.”
-You are an amazing teacher. What would you like to teach to your students?
“I think my way of teaching connects to some students and to some students not. I’ve accepted over the years that I can’t reach every single student.
Some will not connect with it and either be neutral or hesitant and others will give more forceful resistance- and live come to accept that more and more. I hope that I have also gotten better at reading the room that I will teach in. I need to be able to adapt and be a chameleon without sacrificing my integrity.
I want to teach by example, and not just by words. I want to remind, inspire and teach students how to work more efficiently and strong. It’s not enough to say “Work hard”, when the students maybe don’t understand how to work hard. What goes into all the preparations into that hard work, then the hard work itself begins while dancing in the studio or stage and then all the work with the reflection after the work itself. I also give a lot of attention to the aspect of passion, performance and love for your art form. I see so many students just wanting to work the body, the technical aspect and then the performance is completely lost. I tell the students to always perform the warm up in my class , to perform the port de bras in the warm up, to present the plie, how can you make stretching the body artful, who are you as a performer when doing a strength exercise. And I’m also very detailed about the process of never marking in a disconnected way when learning movements and choreography. To always be curious of how a movement can be done instead of just seeing it as just another move.”
-Why do you think art is so important in our society?
“Without art, our society would be grey buildings without art on the walls and without decorations, no music on the radio, no tv shows with acting, no concerts or festivals and no dance performances. It would be little to no vibrance or expression of the time we live in and we would lose identity and culture.”
-Can you give some advice to young dancers and choreographers?
“An advice to young dancers would be to train yourself to learn as strong as you can and to not expect the teacher to make you understand everything. An example I’ve seen is when teaching a more upside down movement on the floor. Usually I ask the students to first watch me demonstrate slowly the move and to break down the various components of the coordination. I think it’s fascinating to see after how different students attack the process of then trying the move themselves. Some students try over and over again and ask questions and have curious attention while some students kinda sit on the floor after attempting a few times. It’s almost as they expect the teacher to make their body be able to do it. I had a teacher that said that I know how to do this movement in my body and I can teach my best to make you find the movement in your body, but I can’t make your body understand it- that’s your responsibility.
I also find it sad to see students frustrated when they feel they do bad and they don’t get the choreography because it’s difficult etc, and then as soon as class is finished the immediately leave the studio. I was the type of student myself that stood
Hours and practiced class materials over and over again and took extra classes after school schedule to keep learning.
I don’t see the a smart connection between wanting to learn something, then realizing it’s difficult and then not putting in extra effort and time
Outside the school schedule to learn that difficult component.
For young choreographers I would advise to keep making and keep creating. Create even if you don’t have a commission or work and to spend a lot of time researching movements that comes from
Your personality, not necessarily your personal movement style- but what makes you you as a person and how can that individual identification translate into a physical expression.”
Thank you so much Jon! It was such an honor for us!