Welcome to a jam-packed program with dance performances, film, cross-artist productions, seminars, performances and parties in the world's northernmost dance town.
Last year the festival marked its 20th anniversary. With this year's programme we are heading for the next 20. The festival is an important arena for dance in Northern Norway and the Barents region. Our goal is to be a vibrant meeting place for new ideas, where we develop in tune with the regions trends. We invite to conversations about who we are, where we are going and how changing current affairs affect us and cultural practice in the north by focusing on social, political, climatic and ecological conditions.
Marita Isobel Solberg and Stellaris DansTeater officially opens this year's festival with the visual performance installation "Weaver/Gođđi/Weaver". The art exhibition extends over the week and allows the Sea Sámi loom to form the framework as a physical carrier of culture and a metaphor for how the world is woven together and we as humans are part of a whole.
The loom can be found again in the school performance by Swedish Dansinitiativet. Children, young people and families have increased focus in our programming. We are excited to welcome Carte Blanche back with the critically acclaimed performance "Retro Cat", where we are invited into a separate universe populated with strange characters, antics, mystery, seriousness and play. The concert performance "Rock me Baby" is also bound to delight the very youngest of our audience.
At the same time, many of the performances are also about being human in this world - in the face of oneself - and with others. They are about power, comfort zones and vulnerability. They are about transformations, sex/uality and echo chambers. We are seeing that international laws, human rights and freedom of expression are no longer sacred values. We are seeing natural disasters of a new scale. Our humanity and capacity for empathy are being tested by forces that seem unstoppable.
This year's festival profile is the Norwegian-based Finnish-French artist Riikka Kosola, who visits the festival with two different works. "Spirelaš" is a performance that reflects on what makes us human and what makes us animals, while "Syrjässä, sylissä - Hidden Rhythms" is a video installation by Kosola and Lauri Schreck with the theme of global aggressiveness. Haugen productions show "XwomXnseX" and Maria Lloyds invites us to "Echo Puncture", a cross between documentary and fiction relevant to the American election held during the festival days. Kvääniteatteri visits us with the performance "Karhutannsi" (Bear Dance), where tradition meets the present in a dance many believe does not exist.
Using the loom as a metaphor, one can also look at how climate change affects us collectively as humans. It is not a local challenge. If there is a hole somewhere in the weave, there is a risk that it will unravel further. Man's relationship with nature weaves itself into several of our performances, in the form of forest creatures in "Økohelter" and cultural myths about climate in the interactive performative installation "Havets Hvisken".
The festival's seminar series ISOBAR looks at current cultural and political trends that affect the practice of culture. This year, the spotlight is on freedom of expression, diversity and incitement in social media, a topic that largely affects a diverse participation in contemporary debate, and the security around both artistic and political freedom of expression.
"This we know: The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. Everything is connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” Chief Seattle
We need to see, and to confirm to each other, that we are all part of the same tapestry.
We need hope, and moments of glimmer.
We need to meet to dance to DJ Saunasatan.
So come and let yourself be entertained and moved. Come reflect and rock with us during this year's festival.
Support us! If you have attended any of our free events, or just want to support our work, we would be grateful for any donations via VIPPS to #117954/DanseFestival Barents or via PayPal (see link below).
