NEWS

Jo Strømgren was on Saturday January 9th awarded the Municipality of Trondheim’s CULTURE PRIZE 2009. The event took place at the annual New Year Concert with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Previous recipients with international flair are amongst others actor/director Liv Ullmann, visual artist Håkon Bleken, designer Julie Skarland, and violin virtuoso Arve Tellefsen.

THE WAKE with the Norwegian National Ballet will premiere on February 13th along with DANCINGMADLYBACKWARDS by David Dawson and SHOOT THE MOON by Lightfoot/Leon. The production features commissioned orchestra music by Bergmund Waal Skaslien and costumes by Bregje van Balen.

The theatre production THE PSEUDONYM at Trøndelag Teater in Trondheim, Norway, was supposed to have a premiere 1 1/2 years ago when leading actor Janne Kokkin broke her leg on stage in front of a full house audience. Finally, the premiere is set to January 9th with a following 2 month run of shows. Jo Strømgren is responsible for text, direction, set design, and costumes. The event marks a new era for this state theatre, being the first premiere under new artistic director Kristian Seltun, formerly director of Black Box Theatre in Oslo.

Norrdans is currently touring Sweden with a new version of KVART. This choreography has previously been staged with different lighting design and costumes in Norway, Iceland, and Denmark. This version features a surprising Alice in Wonderland paraphrase by costume designer Rachel Quarmby. The House of Dance in Stockholm presents the piece on January 22nd.

October 30th is the premiere of SUNDAY, AGAIN at Teatre San Andreu in Barcelona along with a piece by Tero Saarinen. The production is a collaboration between Norrdans (S) and Thomas Noone Company (ES) featuring dancers from both companies. The premiere is followed by a Swedish tour. SUNDAY, AGAIN was originally created for Cedar Lake Dance Company in New York, and has toured extensively in Italy, Norway, Israel, and USA.