'This is not a love story' is intimate and simple, but takes you on a journey for which the globe is not big enough #International Choice

What is your relationship with whales? A. Totally not interested in it. B. Somewhat interested. C. Very fond of whales.
You don't often hear such a question in everyday life. It appears in 'This is not a love story', a narrated, danced and musically performed 'Swedish road movie' by choreographer/filmmaker Gunilla Heilborn. A journey Heilborn took with dancers Johan Thelander and Kristiina Viala from Tromsö to Lisbon provided the material for this performance.

Fortunately, it did not become a geographical travelogue illustrated with dance. A diary was kept and it seems that from it only the wandering thoughts during long drives and the playful incursions and conversations ended up in the performance. Little philosophies for which you have no room in your head at home in all the hustle and bustle. You can have a relationship with stones, also with animals and then maybe with people. Finally, as two people walk towards the horizon, they disappear into a single point. Musings follow on the film 'Vanishing Point' and on Fridtjof Nansen, whose thrilling polar voyage never reached its final destination. Have you ever met someone who committed murder? A fisherman? Describe a picture that has stuck with you. A man in the street with a dog on wheels. A walking couple in a park with people floating through the air in a carousel behind the trees.

Everything in this performance is brought simply and casually. But without realising it all the time, a tremendous richness comes over you. It happens when you leave the daily straitjacket behind and go on a journey. Your head breaks open. Your imagination jumps around freely. Images from ordinary life take on something refreshing or turn out to contain a sparkling absurdity, as Heilborn also shows a lot in her film work.

In 'This is not a love story', text and dance work together to make emotions palpable close to the skin. In this respect, Heilborn's work can be compared to that of Pia Meuthen, who also uses dance to add a dramatic emotional underlay to a story about mutual relationships. Heilborn is the light version of this. The fact that she seeks it in the small, in entanglements that at first sight are anything but dramatic, makes you completely lose yourself in this intimate journey.

The dance and music have exactly the casualness that suits the performance. No intense emotions, although that is what the characters long for. Love is there anyway, but so obvious that it doesn't stand out. Do the husband and wife love whales? A little. Most people give the moderate answer to most questions put to them in life. The characters in 'This is not a love story' are very ordinary, very average. In it, the two click. It's an ending that you feel tremendous satisfaction with.

'This is not a love story', choreography: Gunilla Heilborn (Sweden). Seen 18 September, Krijn Boon Studio, Rotterdam. Still to be seen there: 19 September, 19.30 hrs.