Alumni interviews: Isabell Hertzberg

In connection with SKH's tenth anniversary, we wanted to ask some alumni how they experienced their time at the university. Those we have interviewed studied at the time when we still used the names University College of Opera (OHS), Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (SADA) and DOCH School of Dance and Circus alongside SKH. Last in this series is Isabell Hertzberg who studied the Teacher Education Programme in Dance at DOCH from 2011 to 2016.

Why did you choose DOCH for your education?

– I chose to study at DOCH because I had been curious about dance education programes specifically for several years before starting my studies.

I grew up in a family where folk music, dance bands and jazz were an important part of our community. Dance came to me through my father, who thought that bugg dancing was a natural thing to know before anything else. Then my interest moved on to different urban dance styles, modern and contemporary dance and finally contemporary jazz dance.

How did you experience your time at the school?

– I remember the programme as progressive and innovative. I felt like I was part of the change in society's view of dance, dance pedagogy and choreography. The school was a place where I also had the opportunity to create my own context within the profession, where several of my fellow students are colleagues with whom I work today as a dance teacher, dancer and choreographer.

I feel that the timing of when I started the programme, gave me advantages from a long-term perspective. I was 23 years old when I started the Teacher Education Programme in Dance and was able to confidently apply the courses to my, albeit small, previous experience of dance and dance pedagogy.

Were you affected by the merger of the three schools into SKH?

– Not particularly. I experienced the school starts when we were gathered from several different programmes as rewarding but did not notice the merger so much as a student.

What did you do immediately after graduation and what are you doing today?

– Immediately after my degree, I started a municipal position as a dance manager in youth culture at youth centres. After that, I was given the honour of stepping in as a deputy dance consultant at Region Stockholm for six months, closely followed by a choreographer assignment at Wermland Opera's Christmas production and facade show. Pretty much immediately after my degree, I also started applying for various cultural funds for a project idea that I had been dreaming about for a long time. In 2019, I was granted operational support for a three-year cultural project with an emphasis on dance and rural development (TRAKT). In parallel, I participated as a dancer in an interactive performance with Riksteatern called RoomX. Today I work as a Lecturer in Dance at GIH, the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, combined with studies on the two-year Master's programme in Educational Leadership at Uppsala University.

Was it an advantage for your future professional network to attend a school with many different artistic specialisations?

– Yes and no. Many of the people I work with come from one of the dance programmes. A close colleague in several of the projects I freelanced in, comes from another artistic background (music). However, it was not specifically through the merger, but via a course we studied in parallel with the Royal College of Music at the time.

How do you see SKH today?

– I feel at home with SKH's programmes in dance pedagogy. I like to return there to take part in further training days or to guest teach myself when I have the opportunity.