Past Present - Age in Dance
With this year’s festival and theme my intention has been to put a focus on dance works choreographed in another era. Where are these artists and their art to be found today, what was the influence they had in their time – and how do we best safeguard the history?
Dance House Norway’s former artistic director, Karene Lyngholm, in 2006 took the initiative for TIDSMASKINEN (THE TIME MACHINE) Through a selection of film viewings, discussions and presentations of some of the most outstanding choreographers in Norway from the 1960s until the present day, subsequent generations were given a glimpse of the development of contemporary dance in Norway.
At this time I was the newly appointed artistic director of the CODA festival, and I immediately got the idea for a TIME MACHINE LIVE. Would it be possible to reconstruct some of these productions today, and if so, would they tolerate seeing the light of day?
In the course of the past decade in the art of dance worldwide – and perhaps in the USA in particular – there has been a revival of artworks created in another era. In this year’s festival we will present some Norwegian and international visiting productions and choreographies, with works created as far back as in the 1960s, in addition to more recent works. One of the productions, which will be restaged at Dance House Norway after 22 years, is Dans Design’s FILM – DANCE TO BE MURDERED BY – choreographed by ANNE GRETE ERIKSEN and LEIF HERNES – with the original cast! Another event will be courtesy of the German dance icon SUSANNE LINKE, with whom we will revisit IM BADENWASSER, in which she still dances at the age of 66.
Aging and the acknowledgement of our own lived lives is the main theme for the production that will close the CODA festival this year. A powerful and gripping production about life’s wonders and dark sides. Raw and brutal, fragile and beautiful.
OPENING PRODUCTION DURING THE CODA FESTIVAL 2011 AT DANCE HOUSE NORWAY TUESDAY 11 OCTOBER 8 PM.
The opening production will be EMPTY MOVES [parts I & II] by the French company Ballet Preljocaj with choreography by ANGELIN PRELJOCAJ and with JOHN CAGE’s live 1977 recording from Milano EMPTY WORDS. Ballet Preljocaj visited the Bergen International Festival in 2001, and the visiting production during the CODA festival will be a Scandinavian premiere as well as the company’s first performance in the Norwegian capital.
Lise Nordal
CEO/Artistic Director
