From form to feel

From Form to Feel is a new choreographic work that originates in material traces in the archive of Høvik ballet, the first free professional dance company in Norway in recent times. The company existed from 1969 to 1989, and had the Henie Onstad Art Center at Høvikodden as its permanent location. Compared to music, theatre, visual art and literature from the same period, the early art of dance is poorly documented, but something exists. The project has worked with photo and film material from the first period from 1969 to 1975, and the title is a reversal of the NRK program From feel to form from 1969, the first film documentation of the company.

From Form to Feel takes place as an interdisciplinary performance over several hours outside and inside the Henie Onstad Art Center from 2 to 5 November 2023. The music is newly written and performed by Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen, Jan Martin Smørdal and Kristine Tjøgersen, costumes and visuals by Solveig Fagermo and lighting design by Elisabeth Kjeldahl Nilsson. The performance will extend through the art center and out to the surrounding park and fjord and invites the audience to an active reflection on why some things are remembered and others forgotten.

The choreography has been developed in close collaboration and through a multi-year exploration with the dance artists Ilse Ghekiere, Terje Tjøme Mossige, Magdalene Solli and Per Roar. The artists meet the traces of the original material in our time, and wonder which bodies and events were present and absent in the storytelling of Høvik ballet. In this resonant space, a multi-voiced web of new connections grows.