“Be Like Water” will tour to New York city and La MaMa MOVES festival in May and Seattle International Dance Festival in June with performances:
May 14th, 2020 at 7pm Riksscenen, Oslo, Norway
May 21st, 2020 at 7pm La MaMa MOVES Festival, Ellen Stewart Theater, New York, NY
May 22nd, 2020 at 7pm La MaMa MOVES Festival, Ellen Stewart Theater, New York, NY
May 23rd, 2020 at 7pm La MaMa MOVES Festival, Ellen Stewart Theater, New York, NY
May 24th, 2020 at 7pm La MaMa MOVES Festival, Ellen Stewart Theater, New York, NY
June 27th, 2020 at 7pm Seattle International Dance Festival, Seattle, WA
June 28th workshop at Seattle International Dance Festival, Seattle, WA
“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 touring cast 2020: Ottavio Ferrante, Thais Hvid, Anne Lise Rønne, Katja Schia, Magi Serra, Gerd Kaisa Vorren,
Dancers original cast: Kenneth Flak, Antero Hein, Külli Roosna, Anne Lise Pettersen Rønne, Åsne Storli, Anton Wretling
Videodesign and touring technical director: Tord Eliassen
Lightdesign: Laurent Ravot
Sounddesign: Morten Pettersen
Costumedesign: Signe Vasshus
Costumemaker/seam: Antti Bjørn
Tour producer: Brendan McCall
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
Touring funds for US tour generously provided by Performing Arts Hub Norway and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arts Council, Norway, Fund for Sound and Image and Fund for Performing Artists, Norway. Additional funds for Oslo performances provided by the City of Oslo.
“Be like water” was 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.
Premiered: September 10th, 2015 at Bærum Kulturhus, Norway
Previous performances:
April 21st, 2017 – performance and workshops, Amman Contemporary Dance Festival at Royal Cultural Palace, Amman, Jordan.
April 23rd, 2017 – performance Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival at Municipal Theater, Ramallah, Palestine
April 26th, 2017 – performance Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival at Palestinian National Theater, East Jerusalem, Palestine
September 25th-26th, 2016 – workshop and performances – Tbilisi International Festival of Theater, Tbilisi, Georgia
September 23rd – 22nd, 2016, – performance – Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan 19th, 2016 at 15.00 – open stage general rehearsal – Asker Kulturhus, Norway 25th, 7pm, 2015: Dans i Novembermørkret festival, Nordanå Teater, Skellefteå, Sweden
Novmber 21st, 5.30pm, 2015: 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, 7pm, 2015, Bærum Kulturhus, Oslo, Norway
September 10th, 7pm, 2015, Bærum Kulturhus, Oslo, Norway