The Heart is an ongoing research project by Nellie Björklund and Nelia Naumanen. Inspired by traces, stories, guided tours, social dancing and lonely hearts, The Heart carries dance memories inside of it – from shabby Viking Line clubs to dances shared with dad in the living room.

The project started as an exploration on the relationship between the audience and the performer, and how, through the sensitivity of dance, we can move closer to one another – blur the separation between the performer and the spectator, find ways to connect, play, dance and spend time together. After a while, it also turned into exploring the idea that each specific dance space holds traces and memories of the dances that happened there before, that these traces are gathered in the floor and the walls of the building.

The first version of The Heart (then titled ‘Yours, chasing the sun’) premiered in November 2022 at Stockholm University of the Arts. At Vitlycke, Nellie and Nelia are working on the second version of The Heart, set to premiere in 2025.

Nelia Naumanen (FI)

Nelia Naumanen (she/they) is a Finnish dancer based between Helsinki and Stockholm. They graduated from Stockholm University of the Arts in 2023 with a BA in Dance Performance.

During their studies Nelia worked with and performed for Ofelia Jarl Ortega, Yared Tilahun Cederlund, Gergő D. Farkas, artistic duo QUARTO, and others. After graduating she has collaborated with Weld Stockholm, an independent platform for experimental processes and knowledge production, as well as interned with choreographers Cristina Caprioli and Liisa Pentti.

In her own artistic practice Nelia is interested in working together and dancing a lot. Her work often combines movement and text, whether it means hosting people through talking or leaving poems in the space after a dance. Punk budget aesthetics, ecological and decolonial thinking, rhythms, and fast feet are also frequently present.

Nellie Björklund (SE)

Nellie Björklund finished her bachelor in dance performance at Stockholm University of (t)HeArts together with Nelia Naumanen in 2023. She is currently based in-between Spain and Sweden.

Nellie has previously participated in the performance “Any number of sunset” by Rachel Tess. She has worked as part of the team for “Still Untitled” by Xavier Le Roy and Scarlet Yu at Wanås Konst, where she also held dance workshops for school classes aged 6-14 years. During the summer of 2020, Nellie participated in the project SET-UP in Malmö. Furthermore, she has also participated in productions at Skillinge Teater, Malmö Stadsteater and as part of the performing arts collective Teater Athena. During the education she worked with choreographers Yared Cederlund, Ofelia Jarl Ortega, Liz Kinoshita, Quarto and Hugo Hedberg among others.

Her interest in dance lies in the interpersonal, the ways in which dance can create encounters between people and places of community and belonging.