“The ocean is roaring, the dancers roll over each other, try to get up, grabbing each other, supporting, fighting, hugging, struggeling against each other. The scene is overpowering. Thoughts go to drowning refugees in the Mediterranean, or to John Akomfrahs video work “Vertigo Sea” which gathered much attention at the last Venezia Biennale. … The movement language feels very natural, but is at the same time physically neck breaking and risky with elements of acrobatics, streetdance and martial arts. Gravity is recurrently utilised. … Somehow it feels hopefull. If people can dance water they should be able to create opportunities for survival.” – critic Karin Kämsby, Danstidningen, Sweden
***
Continuing my commitment to investigating an extreme and organic physicality within the emotional mathematics of choreographic structures, I chose to work within a poetic and impressionistic vein, to explore that basic element of all life: water.
Water is essential for all life forms, from the macro perspective of the planet to the micro perspective of single cellular life. Our bodies are seventy percent water. It is thus our most precious commodity. We as humans are a sea of liquids making a structure and shape, an organismic configuration, a form, a geometry, a pattern of pulsation leading to certain patterns of experienced life, feeling, and thinking both within ourselves and in the exchange with others.
Our world today is full of fear and division. Images of war, floods, drought, disasters, pollution and humans struggling for survival or empowerment are everywhere. I hope by acknowledging this as a background for my work, that it can ignite sparks of hope and compassion for the conditions of our shared world.
– Kari Hoaas
***
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend. – Bruce Lee
***
Credits:
Choreography, concept and direction: Kari Hoaas
Dancers original cast 2015: Kenneth Flak, Antero Hein, Külli Roosna, Anne Lise Pettersen Rønne, Åsne Storli, Anton Wretling
Touring cast 2016: Ottavio Ferrante, Ida Haugen, Thais Hvid, Åsne Storli, Gerd Kaisa Vorren, Jonas Örkner
Touring cast 2017: Ida Haugen, Antero Hein, Thais Hvid, Åsne Storli, Gerd Kaisa Vorren, Anton Wretling
Touring cast 2020: Ottavio Ferrante, Thais Hvid, Magi Serra, Katja Schia, Gerd Kaisa Vorren, Andrea Winsnes
Lightdesign: Laurent Ravot
Videodesign and tour technician: Tord Eliassen
Sounddesign: Morten Pettersen
Costumedesign: Signe Vasshus
Costumemaker/seam: Antti Bjørn
Producer/manager: Annika Ostwald
Music: Meredith Monk, Kayhan Kalhor, Levon Minassian, Delphine Mantoulet & Valentin Dahmani, Armand Amar & Seyed Mohammad Hanjani
Photocredit: Kim S. Falck-Jørgensen
Video trailer and documentation: Yaniv Cohen
Premiered: September 10th, 2015 at Bærum Kulturhus, Norway
“Be like water” is co-produced by Bærum Culturehouse, Oslo, Norway and Culture Skellefteå in Sweden. Created, in part, in residency at Vitlycke Centre for Performing Arts, Tanumshede, Sweden and Hallen, Nordanå, Culture Skellefteå, Sweden. Creation support provided by Arts Council Norway and the Norwegian Fund for Sound and Image. Touring funds provided by Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Dancers touring cast 2020: Ottavio Ferrante, Thais Hvid, Magi Serra, Katja Schia, Gerd Kaisa Vorren, Andrea Winsnes
Upcoming performances:
Live performances postponed from 2020 season due to Covid19
May, 2021 – La MaMa MOVES Festival, New York, USA
June 26-27th, 2021 – Seattle International Dance Festival, Seattle, USA
Previous performances:
July 7th, 2020 – La MaMa MOVES ONLINE Festival, New York, USA – ONLINE PRESENTATION – COVID19
June 12th – 27th, 2020 – Seattle International Dance Festival, Seattle, USA – VIRTUAL FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE – COVID19
April 26th, 2017 – performance – Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, East Jerusalem, Palestine
April 25th, 2017 – workshop – Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Ramallah, Palestine
April 23rd, 2017 – performance – Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival, Ramallah, Palestine
April 21st, 2017 – performance – Amman Contemprary Dance Festival, Amman, Jordan
April 21st, 2017 – workshop – Amman Contemporary Dance Festival, Amman, Jordan
September 26th, 2016 – performance – Tbilisi International Festival of Theater, Tbilisi, Georgia
September 25th, 2016 – workshop – Tbilisi International Festival of Theater, Tbilisi, Georgia
September 23rd, 2016, – performance – Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbadjan
September 22nd, 2016, – performance – Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbadjan
September 19th, 2016 – performance – Asker Kulturhus, Norway
Novmber 25th, 2015 – performance – Dans i Novembermørkret festival, Nordanå Teater, Skellefteå, Sweden
Novmber 21st, 2015 – performance – Tid for Dans festival, Dansekunst i Grenland, Ælvespeilet Kulturhus, Porsgrunn, Norway
November 20th, 2015 – Kari Hoaas lecture presentation – Tid for Dans festival, Dansekunst i Grenland, Ælvespeilet Kulturhus, Porsgrunn, Norway
September 11th, 2015 – performance – Bærum Kulturhus, Oslo, Norway
September 10th, 2015 – performance – Bærum Kulturhus, Oslo, Norway
