dansera, sera: Part I

Filmmaker: Chang Liu (Liu) 

Performer: Rebecka Berchtold, Sam Huczkowski, Jonathan Starr, Alban Ovanessian, Lander Casier Shooting Location: Northern Sweden 

Research Supported by Norrdans 

Produced in 2021 

Premiered at Norrdans Black Box, Hänösand, Sweden  

Concept: 

What remains of dance when the dancing stops?  

In dansera, sera, Chang Liu turns the gaze of the camera toward stillness, presence, and the ephemeral truth of being. Following eight dancers from Norrdans, Liu spends two uninterrupted hours with each, not to rehearse, choreograph, or even move—but simply to be. There is no dancing in this dance film. And yet, dance saturates every frame.  

This intimate work investigates whether the essence of dance can persist without movement—whether it can be felt through breath, silence, gaze, and the unspoken connection between bodies. What happens when we strip away choreography and observe the dancer as a human, a presence, a vessel of lived experiences? Through a meditative lens, dansera, sera invites viewers to witness the subtleties of attention, vulnerability, and existence as dance.  

The title, echoing "Que sera, sera"—whatever will be, will be—plays on both the Swedish word dansera (to dance) and the surrender to presence. This film proposes that dance is not merely what is done, but who one is when no one is doing.