Premiere October 17th 2011.
The Norwegian Opera & Ballet
CODA Oslo International Dance Festival.
Ingun Bjørnsgaard often stages her fumbling, brutal and beautiful characters as they are crossing the boundary between restraint and spectacle. In Omega and the Deer they get lost in such a place, on the way to the forest, taken prisoner by their own shadows. There is a framework, which outlines different spaces and directions for our movements: our body, our gender, our sense of belonging to a place, our sociability, our past. This entails the perceptions and contrasts that shape us and create movement, friction, despair and melancholy. The piece addresses among other things the complex self-perception of the modern man, with references to the art of Edvard Munch.
Choreographer: Ingun Bjørnsgaard,
Dancers: Mattias Ekholm, Erik Rulin, Ida Wigdel, Marianne Haugli, Matias Rønningen, Marta-Luiza Jankowska
Composers: Rolf Wallin, Tansy Davies
Stage design: Thomas Björk
Costumes: Ane Aasheim
Light design: Hans Skogen
Sound design: Morten Pettersen
Dramatic advicer: Kai Johnsen
Co-producer: Dansens Hus and CODA Oslo International Dance Festival
Produced by: Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt
Images
2011
CODA Oslo International Dance Festival.
Norwegian Opera House October 17-18.
DanseFestival Barents 2011 Hammerfest, November 9.
Nordwind Festival
Radialsystem V, December 03-04. Berlin, Germany
Fabrik Potsdam December 07-08. Potsdam, Germany
Kampnagel December 10-11.Hamburg, Germany
2012
January 10th, The Joyce SOHO Showcase (20 min excerpt) New York, U.S.
March 23rd-24th, Dansens Hus Norway
May 2nd, New Baltic Dance Festival. Vilnius Lithuania
August 30th, Internationale Tanzmesse 2012 Tanzhaus, Düsseldorf, Germany
2013
April 22nd– RAS i Sandnes, Norway
May 3rd– Lofoten kulturhus, Norway
September 19th, International Munch seminar, Dansen Hus Norway
September 27th-28th, Trøndelag Teater, Trondheim, Norway
October 25th, Tarnow, Poland
2014
April 8. – Pont-Chateau , France
April 10. – Haute-Goulaine , France
April 12. – Saint Bartelemy d`Ànjou, France
Reviews
“In Omega and the Deer she is likewise examining the animalistic nature of humanity, however she tames the courtship dances artistically and sometimes acrobatically in complex choreography for six phenomenal protagonists.” Hamburger Abendblatt,Germany. 12.12.2011
“Her characters are always strong and technically adept. Virtuosity once more, at its creative peak. As Marianne Haugli, blonde poison, kicks her endless long legs vertically in the air, in a never before seen dance move the foot swings down from above and hits the head of her male adversary, making the dance almost iconic.” Die Welt, Germany. 12.12.2011
Die Welt
12th December 2011
Extract from Female Landscapes
Irmela Kästner
Steam seeps out of the woodshed housing a temporary sauna in the middle of the Berndt Jasper piazza. Inside, the bar entices people with a bitter hot drink. It is advertised as an aphrodisiac, infused with a good shot of rum. There are also unusual ways of igniting the passion for dance and theatre at the Nordwind Festival. But such stimulants aren’t really necessary. The force with which some of the artists from Scandinavia and the Baltic exert pressure on the Kampnagel halls creates enough excitement in itself.
Besides which, Ingun Bjørnsgaard’s company – who after a nine year absence are seamlessly picking up from their earlier Hamburg successes with their latest piece Omega and the Deer – inspire the finest choreographic artistry. Thematically, the Oslo choreographer is staying true to herself. She joins mythically alienated mating rituals between men and women, lost in thought both poetically and brutally bestially, with a round dance consisting of wonderful duets and trios, brimming over with movement fantasies. A famous fellow Norwegian, artist Edvard Munch provided her inspiration with his lithography series “Alpha and Omega” from the beginning of the modern age. However Bjørnsgaard’s characters (three women, three men) have completely arrived in the urban present.
Her characters are always strong and technically adept. Virtuosity once more, at its creative peak. As Marianne Haugli, blonde poison, kicks her endless long legs vertically in the air, in a never before seen dance move the foot swings down from above and hits the head of her male adversary, making the dance almost iconic. The man carries his beloved in his hands, raises her and spins her constantly, until he lies on the floor exhausted and she teeters without turning around again.
Pleasure and pain in an eternal relationship clinch, carried with humour, riddled with melancholy, hilarious in failing advances. Cumbersome compositions from Rolf Wallin and Tansy Davies slip in-between, reconciled now and then with a gentle song. Following flaunting and posing comes a lolling around in unmet dreamy loneliness, lounging around like the artfully tied leafy garlands, which swing from the ceiling of Thomas Björk’s stage. Trimmed nature from a sophisticated aesthetic, in which life is going nowhere.
Hamburger Abendblatt
12th December 2011
Extract from Dance reveals the animalistic nature of humanity
Hunters and the hunted on the border of the corporate world and the wilderness of the forest
Omarsdottir’s Norwegian colleague, Ingun Bjørnsgaard goes about it in a cool and ironically more distanced way. In Omega and the Deer she is likewise examining the animalistic nature of humanity, however she tames the courtship dances artistically and sometimes acrobatically in complex choreography for six phenomenal protagonists. Luminous and graceful in the centre, at the same time aloof and alluring, shy and demanding: Marianne Haugli. A blonde, long-legged, fragile and aggressive beast. She enters into an erotic duel with Mattias Ekholm, while Erik Rulin outs himself as a desk jockey and mounts his furniture of power. A caricature of the disaffected businessman that is as powerful as it is funny. By contrast Marta-Luiza Jankowska and Matias Rønningen entwine and twist in the longing for love, without finding common ground.
The women already dominate in this complex mating round dance between hunters and the hunted on the border of the cold corporate world and the dark forest wilderness. The surreal movement patterns tell of dreams and the illusion of the fulfilment of love.
“In Omega and the Deer she is likewise examining the animalistic nature of humanity, however she tames the courtship dances artistically and sometimes acrobatically in complex choreography for six phenomenal protagonists.” Hamburger Abendblatt,Germany. 12.12.2011
“Her characters are always strong and technically adept. Virtuosity once more, at its creative peak. As Marianne Haugli, blonde poison, kicks her endless long legs vertically in the air, in a never before seen dance move the foot swings down from above and hits the head of her male adversary, making the dance almost iconic.” Die Welt, Germany. 12.12.2011
Die Welt
12th December 2011
Extract from Female Landscapes
Irmela Kästner
Steam seeps out of the woodshed housing a temporary sauna in the middle of the Berndt Jasper piazza. Inside, the bar entices people with a bitter hot drink. It is advertised as an aphrodisiac, infused with a good shot of rum. There are also unusual ways of igniting the passion for dance and theatre at the Nordwind Festival. But such stimulants aren’t really necessary. The force with which some of the artists from Scandinavia and the Baltic exert pressure on the Kampnagel halls creates enough excitement in itself.
Besides which, Ingun Bjørnsgaard’s company – who after a nine year absence are seamlessly picking up from their earlier Hamburg successes with their latest piece Omega and the Deer – inspire the finest choreographic artistry. Thematically, the Oslo choreographer is staying true to herself. She joins mythically alienated mating rituals between men and women, lost in thought both poetically and brutally bestially, with a round dance consisting of wonderful duets and trios, brimming over with movement fantasies. A famous fellow Norwegian, artist Edvard Munch provided her inspiration with his lithography series “Alpha and Omega” from the beginning of the modern age. However Bjørnsgaard’s characters (three women, three men) have completely arrived in the urban present.
Her characters are always strong and technically adept. Virtuosity once more, at its creative peak. As Marianne Haugli, blonde poison, kicks her endless long legs vertically in the air, in a never before seen dance move the foot swings down from above and hits the head of her male adversary, making the dance almost iconic. The man carries his beloved in his hands, raises her and spins her constantly, until he lies on the floor exhausted and she teeters without turning around again.
Pleasure and pain in an eternal relationship clinch, carried with humour, riddled with melancholy, hilarious in failing advances. Cumbersome compositions from Rolf Wallin and Tansy Davies slip in-between, reconciled now and then with a gentle song. Following flaunting and posing comes a lolling around in unmet dreamy loneliness, lounging around like the artfully tied leafy garlands, which swing from the ceiling of Thomas Björk’s stage. Trimmed nature from a sophisticated aesthetic, in which life is going nowhere.
Hamburger Abendblatt
12th December 2011
Extract from Dance reveals the animalistic nature of humanity
Hunters and the hunted on the border of the corporate world and the wilderness of the forest
Omarsdottir’s Norwegian colleague, Ingun Bjørnsgaard goes about it in a cool and ironically more distanced way. In Omega and the Deer she is likewise examining the animalistic nature of humanity, however she tames the courtship dances artistically and sometimes acrobatically in complex choreography for six phenomenal protagonists. Luminous and graceful in the centre, at the same time aloof and alluring, shy and demanding: Marianne Haugli. A blonde, long-legged, fragile and aggressive beast. She enters into an erotic duel with Mattias Ekholm, while Erik Rulin outs himself as a desk jockey and mounts his furniture of power. A caricature of the disaffected businessman that is as powerful as it is funny. By contrast Marta-Luiza Jankowska and Matias Rønningen entwine and twist in the longing for love, without finding common ground.
The women already dominate in this complex mating round dance between hunters and the hunted on the border of the cold corporate world and the dark forest wilderness. The surreal movement patterns tell of dreams and the illusion of the fulfilment of love.