The Contemporary Dance Practices graduate students present two dance pieces; Divine by Halla Ólafsdóttir & Disaster Resilience of the Water by Sandrine Cassini.
Words from the program director:
„Dear guests
A dancer's graduation performance is a rite of passage, concluding the time together as students while entering the professional community as dance artists.
In this double-bill performance, we follow ten grading students of Contemporary Dance Practices that form a community of voices and a collective body. They invite us to witness divine landscapes, calling on us with having movement material and powerful image in two different but evocative works. These dance artists of the future victorious as eternal bones, rocks, masts, masters of their universe.
During their three-year BA education at the Iceland University of the Arts, these emerging artists have shown such spirit and urgency through their dedication to their craft, their presence and their artistry. After graduation, they are entertaining an unstable world with the groundably shifting. Get ready to ride with them. There is now where I would find better be than to be inspired by these absolute monsters of joy.
We may never be ready for the future, and you are not ready for these beasts, but here they are, asking us to be moved and changed, and we will love them for it.“
Katrín Gunnarsdóttir
Associate Professor and Program Director
DISASTER RESILIENCE OF THE WATER
DEVINE
GRADUATES:
Dancers//Students: Andrea María Ólafsdóttir, Bertine Bertelsen Fadnes, Elida Angvik Hovdar, Elsa Kamöy Furuseth, Jaakko Juhani Fagerberg, Leevi Alpo Antinpoika Mettinen, Mari Ann Valkna, María Kristín Jóhannsdóttir, Rebekka Guðmundsdóttir & Torfi Tómasson.
WHEN/WHERE/WHO
WHEN:
Friday - May 9th - 8:00 PM - 9:40 PM
Saturday -May 10th - 6:00 PM - 7:40 PM
Sunday - May 11th - 6:00 PM - 7:40 PM
Wednesday - May 14th - 8:00 PM - 9:40 PM
Thursday - May 15th - 8:00 PM - 9:40 PM
Friday - May 16th - 8:00 PM - 9:40 PM
Two shows with one 20 minute break.
WHERE:
Big Black Box, L223
Iceland University of the Arts
Laugarnesvegur 91, 105 Reykjavík
Enter from below the building, entry closest to Sæbraut.
9013-
Set & costume design: Gudný Hrund Sigurðardóttir
Light & sound design: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Light & sound operator: María Jóngerð Gunnlaugsdóttir
Photos: Björgvin Sigurðarson
DIVINE
The coven calls you in
Divine is a dance performance by Halla Ólafsdóttir, originally premiered at Uniarts in Stockholm in 2024, now reimagined in collaboration with the 3rd year BA in Dance at LHI.
The performance combine Halla's long-term obsessions ðil the diva, the witch, and the rockstar 'with the idea of the dancer as a channeler of the divine. Through choreography and sound, Divine becomes a balm for the senses, exploring the raw dynamics between performer and spectator.
Divine invites you into a hypnotic world where a coven of dancers shapes, contemporary dance into a divine ritual, a divine narrative, a divine drag, a divine destination, a divine spiritual, a divine spiritual, a divine translation, a divine contact, a divine movement, a divine sound, a divine channeling, a divine chain, a divine diagram, a divine concern, a divine guide, a divine forecast, a divine forecast, a divine challenge, a divine imagination, a divine imagination, a divine translation, a divine translation, a divine translation, a divine translation, a divine translation, a divine transmission, a divine scream.
Through movement, voice, and immersive soundscape, Divine transforms space ð éscillating between the ultimate and the epic. It is a ritual of collective energy, inspired by the stability of a deep lake and the untamed force of a coven.
Choreography: Halla Ólafsdóttir in cooperation with the dancers
Piano music: Futö by Shida Shahabi
Sound design: Valdimar Jóhannsson and Halla Ólafsdóttir
Vocals: Elida Angvik Hovdar and Torfi Tómasson together with the choir of dancers.
All texts in the performance are written by the dancers.
DISASTER RESILIENCE OF THE WATER
Individuals or communities thought of as a miniature universe or a world in itself
The idea of the piece came as a reflection of the journey these 10 individuals took for the last 3 years of their lives. The program and the desire to study dance broke them together, here in Reykjavik from different countries, different background, experiences, needs, expectations.
What does this mean? If we are bound to be together, is there an observation time, is there fear, are there points? About ourselfs, about the others? When is the sense of community emerging? When do we start trusting each other? Are we influenced by the others? And as times passes by what will remain of this journey? Will it change us? What will we leave behind?
I have asked the dancers to think of one to three words that could define their experience or memory of the time they had here.
These are the words: ; moments, warmth, sweethearts, immoral, alchemy, exploration, growth, greatest, team, ever, joy, awesomeness, pivotal, arduous, ilovemyhomies, trust, insightful, generous, lovely, friendship, failing, fingers, tears, sweat, forever.
And I am eternally happy to have had the opportunity to meet them at the beginning of their journey and company them to their farewell. Thank you Katrin for your trust. You give me a beautiful marriage.
Thank you Andrea, Bertine, Elida, Elsa, Jaako, Leevi, Mari, Maria, Rebecca, Torfi. You are forever in my heart.
Choreography: Sandrine Cassini
Music: Stil by Machinefabriek
The work in pictures.