Útskriftarverk samtímadansbrautar | Listaháskóli Íslands

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 programme 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 graduating 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 haunting movement material and powerful imagery in two different but evocative works. These dance artists of the future emerge victorious as ethereal beings, rockstars, mages, 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 entering an unstable world with the ground constantly shifting. Get ready to ride with them. There is nowhere I would rather 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 Programme Director

ÚTSKRIFTARNEMENDUR:

**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 – 20:00 – 21:40
Saturday -May 10th – 18:00 – 19:40
Sunday – May 11th – 18:00 – 19:40

Wednesday – May 14th – 20:00 – 21:40
Thursday – May 15th – 20:00 – 21:40
Friday – May 16th – 20:00 – 21:40

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, entrance closest to Sæbraut.

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Set & costume design: Guðný 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 combines Halla’s long-term obsessions — 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 shapeshifts contemporary dance into a divine ritual, a divine narrative, a divine drag, a divine beast, a divine spiral, a divine attention, a divine pose, a divine listening, a divine crow, a divine rockstar, a divine composition, a divine shaking, a divine trajectory, a divine imagination, a divine feeling, a divine translation, a divine transmutation, a divine lake, a divine scream, a divine channeling, a divine choir, a divine diagonal, a divine forest, and a divine, disgustingly cute diva.

Through movement, voice, and immersive soundscape, Divine transforms space — oscillating between the intimate and the epic. It is a ritual of collective energy, inspired by the stillness of a deep lake and the untamed force of a coven.

Choreography: Halla Ólafsdóttir in collaboration 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 brought 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 doubts? About ourselves, 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 grateful to have had the opportunity to meet them at the beginning of their journey and accompany them to their farewell. Thank you Katrin for your trust.You gave me a beautiful gift.

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