Love at first sight
Jac Carlsson (23) from Sweden is a fourth-year student in the Bachelor of Dance programme at Rotterdam Dance Academy. In the second year he did an internship, and in the third year he was out of the running for four months due to an injury. Now he’s following technique lessons. And he’s auditioning.
In his fourth year of the Bachelor of Dance programme, Jac Carlsson (Stockholm, 29 September 1986) takes technique lessons in the studios of Rotterdam Dance Academy every day. And he is auditioning. The majority of his fellow fourth-years are now active as an intern with a dance company; after all, according to the curriculum the fourth year is the internship year. Jac has already done his internship: for the whole second school year, plus a portion of the summer vacation, he was part of Henri Oguike Dance Company in London.
‘For a long time I thought about whether I really ought to do that, already do an internship in the second year of my study. Wouldn’t it be better to take classes for a few years first? But I also realised that this was a unique opportunity for me,’ tells Jac. He labels his time in London as ‘crazy, fun, inspiring’. ‘Henri gave me a lot of responsibility, in the creative process too.’
Jac was a late starter with dancing. ‘My mother is an actress, my father a director; as a child I was often in the theatre. But my first modern dance performance, by the Cullberg Ballet, I only saw when I was 17 years old. I fell in love at first sight.’ He took dance classes, but quite soon they were not challenging enough for him. Through his participation in a summer school in Stockholm, his love for dance blossomed again fully. ‘I just enjoyed it! This summer school confirmed everything I thought dance should be about.’
Dance can rock the very core of our being, says Jac. ‘In its nature it’s an abstract form of expression. And that is its power. It deals with movement, in the bigger sense of the word. There is no barrier between the dancer and the audience. Everybody can feel movement, even if you can’t see it. I did a lot of sports. I love to move, I love to experience movement in my own body and see it in other bodies. At home I was surrounded by art. Dance combines movement and art.’
He continues: ‘I believe art, and the need to create, to be the most important aspects of life. Art has the ability to transcend everyday life. It tells us that there is more to fight for than just surviving. Art is not a religion, it’s something we do. There might be war, poverty or despair, even complete joy and satisfaction, but people will always create art.’
During his last year at grammar school, Jac trained at a dance school four times a week. Subsequently he auditioned for the Danish National School of Contemporary Dance in Copenhagen, and was accepted. ‘I learned a lot there, but I wanted more. After a year, I chose for Rotterdam Dance Academy. Here, a much higher level of technique and dance environment is offered. It was a great decision for me!’
Jac obtained his propaedeutic certificate, his second school year he lived in London. ‘Henri Oguike was looking for two male dancers for his company, got in touch with Rotterdam Dance Academy and came over here. Out of fifteen students he chose me and another guy.’ After the season in London, concluded with an intensive tour, and a short vacation, Jac came back to the school. ‘I was really keen to work on my technique and I started the lessons very ambitiously.’ Too ambitiously, he now knows. ‘I broke a metatarsal. The recovery cost me four months. In that period I reflected a lot. Why do I do what I do? I love art, I love dance. Since then my pleasure in dancing has become even greater. And I listen to my body much better now.’
He graduates this summer, and in the meantime he is looking for a job. Jac: ‘I don’t just want to become a dancer in a so called fantastic company. I want to be me, and being me means being involved with people that have a bigger vision of art and life, people that relate to who I am. It’s not about what I do, but how I do it.’
