- A physical thought experiment -

Premiere 26. nov. – 2. des. 2018 at Black Box Teater, Oslo, Norway

Somatøs samling is a physical thought experiment. Using body and imagination as a point of departure, choreographers and performers Ingeleiv Berstad and Pernille Holden speculate and fantasize about potential forms of being. The work springs from a curiosity about the materiality of the human body and its ability to transform. Is it possible to imagine a world in which other creatures and entities challenge the position and sensory capacity of human beings?

Berstad and Holden coined the word somatøs as a play on “soma”, body, and “tøs”, something loose. Rather than dedicating themselves to one somatic practice, they want to discover and explore unknown physicalities. This is a performance that aims for the impossible. It reaches beyond established conceptions of the body and practical, spatial limitations, and enters the realm of physical fantasy and new sensory experience.

Together with scenographer Signe Becker and light designer Ingeborg Staxrud Olerud, Berstad and Holden create a somatic laboratory for their investigations. The audience is invited to take an imaginative, physical leap into the unknown.