German premier

Harmony still decides coexistence. At the beginning, happiness was purity and an attachment to nature. It seems as at that time, animals and people were still united in a paradise full of restful peace. Memory or dream, awareness or magic? Perhaps an inner primeval condition that within passing centuries slowly fell into oblivion, similar to the antique sites of ancient cultures which, filled in by rubble and overgrown by grass, have disappeared from conscious mind.

Out of animal-like creatures developed civilised men, diligent and industrious, driven by a hectic rhythm that determined their existence. The day passes in a laid-down pattern and only little room remains for individuality. But suddenly colours light up, sounds ring out from a long forgotten past, it is just like the discovery of a sculpture, a torso, the reawakened memories of an earlier culture. The paradise is endangered but not yet lost, not as long as we retain the sensibility to read the signs coming at us from outside and from within ourselves.

»Ett, paradis, trängt« (»A paradise in distress«), a collection of poems by Arne Johnsson, provided the title for the inspiring source of Lena Josefsson’s stage production that had its premiere in Stockholm during March 1995. Lena Josefsson is one of the most interesting of the younger and important choreographers. In »A paradise in distress« she manages to transform explosive contemporary topics very poetically and in a very individualistic movement language.

The subtle influence of other cultures also plays in it an electrifying role; Lena Josefsson was born 1956 in Zaire as the child of Swedish missionaries and lived there for several years. The memories of African dances and rhythms mingle with her Scandinavian nature. Added to them are several years of instruction in modern dance as well as in choreography in Paris. She also studied at the Academy of Dance in Stockholm.

In 1988 Lena Josefsson founded the, since 1992 in the Örebro County residing, Compagnie Raande-Vo. Lena Josefsson was selected in the same year to represent Sweden during the international choreography competition in Bagnolet/France. Lengthy tours took the compagnie to several European and African countries. The guest performance in Leipzig is its first German appearance.