Gangar fra Svartdalen

Gangar from Svartdalen is a walk and phone number. At an agreed time and place we call you and sing you into the secrets of Svartdalen. Gangarar are folk dances based on walking steps. The districts of Telemark and Setesdalen are well known for their walking dances, while gangarar from other regions are lost and forgotten. Gangar from Svartdalen unfolds as you walk in the lonesome company that only a song sung over the phone can give. Together we are looking for a common rhythm, a common body that draws us into the valley.

Ingeleiv Berstad and Tormod Carlsen share an interest in how to generate places through experience. Gangar from Svartdalen is based on the old tradition of epic poetry and ballads that conjure up stories, a form of storytelling that connects us to places.

Gangar fra Svartdalen premiered in August 2020.

Credits

Idea, concept: Ingeleiv Berstad, Tormod Carlsen

Performance, co-creators: Ida Gudbrandsen, Eivind Seljeseth, Heidi Dalane, Ingeleiv Berstad, Tormod Carlsen

Text: Aina Villanger, Siri Katinka Valdez together with the rest of the performing team

Melody: Ingeleiv Berstad

Composer of Etterklang: Per Platou

Outside eye: Melanie Fieldseth

Song book: published bu Blomster & Bureau, Illustrations by Amalie Vestergaard Olsen

Producer: Ifrah Osman

Produced by: Bananaz - Forening for Scenekunst

Co-produced by: Black Box teater, Oslo

Supported by: Arts Counsil Norway, Municipality of Oslo

«Gangar fra Svartdalen is a simple performative act, and the strength of this act lies sin the proximity that occurs through the telephone conversation whilst I also experience it as fundamentally lonely. It's lonely in a good way where I feel the joy of moving in rhythm with the surroundings and in tune with the music. It's about my body in motion in the world, a world that, after the months at the kitchen table, I feel an extra joy in being close to.»

Julie Rongved Amundsen, Scenekunst.no, 27.8.2020