CODA: Snap

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Coda: Snap / Photo: Antero Hein

A celebration of Oslo’s international dance festival

The CODA festival turns 20! We are celebrating with an anniversary performance with three piping hot new works.

The CODA Oslo International Dance Festival is turning 20 this year – a milestone that cannot go uncelebrated. We are pleased to invite you to the performance SNAP, featuring three diverse contemporary dance works by four choreographers from both Norway and abroad. To snap out of it, to snap awake, to snap at any chance: three works that crawl under your skin and expose the possibilities residing in a dancing body.

Fierce physicality and tenderness

Australian Marc Brew was 20 years old and an up-and-coming young dancer when he was left in a wheelchair after a car accident. Today, he is a celebrated choreographer and international leader in developing inclusive dance works. In un-be-known, nine dancers with and without disabilities come together in a work that combines fierce physicality and tenderness. The result is an honest, unsentimental and deeply human story told through dance.

Brew’s team includes assistant choreographer Georgie Rose, who is involved in the choreographic efforts of the Norwegian National Ballet and personally has the disability variation Tourette’s Syndrome. Her symptoms include tics that she makes a strong effort to control and suppress at all times. This provides the basis for new movement patterns and an exploration of arm movements in her choreographic work.

Sci-fi and mythology

Anna and Berit Einemo Frøysland have been part of the Norwegian National Ballet’s choreographic efforts since they were launched in 2019. In the brand-new Gigant, they take us on a journey into a world inspired by both sci-fi and mythology, a bestiary with trolls and jötunn, groke, golem and other enormous beings – powerful yet also with a sense of loneliness and sorrow about them. A bestiary is natural historic mythical literature. The six dancers on the stage use their body parts as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and give life to creatures far beyond our imagination – performed to a crackling soundscape that is evidence of tremendous forces at play.

Vulnerable reflection on gender roles and identity

Norwegian-Filipino Carl Aquilizan creates works in an abstract, poetic and often distorted landscape. The solo piece Flower Boy revolves around gender roles in Western and Asian culture. Inspired by butoh – Japanese dance theatre – Aquilizan combines lighting, sound, set design and movement. Flower Boy is a touching performance that reflects his personal experiences with suppressing himself – and the process to take back his identity. Aquilizan has participated in CODA’s Creative Lab, a two-year programme in which young choreographers receive guidance and the possibility to build a network.

The Norwegian National Ballet’s choreographic efforts are part of a three-party collaboration between Norsk Tipping, Talent Norway and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet.
The CODA Oslo International Dance Festival is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the DAM Foundation.

Artistic team and Cast

un-be-known

Choreographer Marc Brew
Ass. Choreographer Georgie Rose
Music Joey McNamara
Costume Designer Johanna Sutinen
Lighting Designer Paul Vidar Sævarang
Sound Designer Joseph McNamara
Participants Kadar Khristan, Nanna Knutson, Julie Mjønes, Malene Becker Nielsen, Victor Olivares, Ella Skorgan, Live Haug Skullerud, Felicia Sparrström, Kiruna Stamell
Co-Production CODA Oslo International Dance Festival

Gigant

Choreographer Anna Einemo Frøysland, Berit Einemo Frøysland
Music Joey McNamara
Costume Designer Johanna Sutinen
Lighting Designer Paul Vidar Sævarang
Sound Designer Joseph McNamara
Participants TBC
Co-Production CODA Oslo International Dance Festival
Participants Lou Ditaranto, Synne Erichsen, Jonathan Ibsen, Kamilla Moen, Sarjo Sankareh, Sigyn Åsa Sætereng

Flower Boy

Choreographer and performer Carl Aquilizan
Music Robin Craaford
Set Designer Nemanja Cado
Costume Designer Chris Le
Lighting design and technique Kjetil Moslåtten
Inner Eye Anders Engebretsen
Outer Eyes Geir Hytten, Huy Le Vo, Magnus Myhr
Photo and film Joshua Jacob, Antero Hein
Contributor Carl Aquilizan
Co-production Bærum Kulturhus – Dans Sørøst-Norge, Tekstlab
Sponsors Fotogalleriet, CODA Oslo International Dance Festival
Funded by Kulturrådet, Fond For Utøvende Kunstnere, Tekstlab

Biographies

Marc Brew is an acclaimed choreographer with a focus on integrated dance. He studied dance at the Victorian College of the Arts and Australian Ballet School and has worked internationally for over 24 years as a director, choreographer, dancer, educator and lecturer. Brew was co-director of the Scottish Dance Theater, co-artistic director of the Ballet Cymru in Wales, affiliated artist with the Tramway Theater in Scotland in 2015 and artistic director of the AXIS Dance Company from 2017-2021.

Anna Einemo Frøysland is from Lærdal in Sogn og Fjordane and graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts with a degree in Contemporary Dance. She has danced in several productions for Nagelhus Schia Productions (including Damien Jalet and Erna Omarsdottir), as well as the Ingun Bjørnsgaard Project, Marina Abramovic, Jeff Pedersen Productions and Ingvild Thingnes. As a choreographer, Anna has been selected to participate in the Choreography Laboratory at Dansens Hus in 2019 with the solo piece ‘Still’. In 2020, she created the work ‘Spil’ together with her twin sister Berit Einemo Frøysland and in 2022, ‘The Shameful Dance’. As a duo, the twins are part of the Norwegian National Ballet’s choreographic efforts. This year, Anna will be choreographing a full-length production for the ESC Youth Company in Bergen to premiere during Oktoberdans. Anna has been awarded the Government Grant for Artists for 2020-2022.

Berit Einemo Frøysland er from Lærdal in Sogn og Fjordane and is a dancer, choreographer and writer. She received her education at the Balettakademien in Stockholm, Westerdals (Text and Writing) and the Spin Off Foundation Programme in Dance. She recently moved back to Norway after having lived in Berlin for five years, where she worked for choreographers and companies like the Sicilano Contemporary Ballet, Eric Gauthier, Deborah Hay, Satoshi Kudo and Katrina Bastian. In Norway, she has worked with, among others, Marina Abramovic and Jeff Pedersen, and is part of the talent programme Frikar X for dancers. She has created several of her own works, such as Petra – a solo about Rainer Werner Fassbinders Petra von Kant (2020), and her work has been shown regularly at DOCK 11 in Prenzlauer Berg. ‘Spil’ (2020) and ‘The Shameful Dance’ (2022) were created in partnership with her twin sister Anna Einemo Frøysland, in addition to several dance films. Both are involved in the Norwegian National Ballet’s choreographic efforts for young female choreographers. Berit has been awarded the Government Grant for Artists for 2022-2024.

Carl Aquilizan is a Norwegian-Filipino dance artist who graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. He has choreographed for such platforms as Burst (Yorkshire Dance), Dans/5, Vin og Valsen and Mind the Gap. He has also choreographed for the Bjerke Upper Secondary School (2019) and Spin Off Foundation Programme in Dance (2019 and 2020). Carl currently works as a freelance choreographer and performer in various projects and, apart from his own work, has worked with Katrine Kirsebom, Kyuja Bae, Daniel Lukehurst and Martijn Joling.