Reykjavík Grapevine - 17.06.2011, Qupperneq 52

Last fall, Alexander Roberts described
the Reykjavík dance scene and its po-
tential in glowing terms in these pages.
Pointing to talented Icelandic dance
makers, an expanded number of dance
events in the coming months, and plans
for a city-funded theatre devoted solely
to dance…well, the future shone.
Viewing the same territory, I see a few
clouds. Sure, astonishing work can be
seen; at the same time, the quantity and
range of dance on offer are limited, and
ho-hum work abounds. Five events from
the Reykjavík Arts Festival—enriched
this year for the performing arts—can
help explain.
AN UNUSUAL TRIP
‘The Journey of the Phoenix’, a the-
atre-dance-music hybrid created and
performed by María Ellingsen (actor),
Reijo Kela (dancer) and Eivör Pálsdót-
tir (singer), stood apart from the typi-
cal Reykjavík dance(-theatre) work. To
see the piece, you climbed onto Bor-
garleikhúsið’s big stage, where an
impromptu theatre-in-the-round was
set up. Two rows of chairs and a row
of risers surrounded Snorri Freyr Hil-
marsson’s stage set: a circular maze
inscribed in sand and, hanging from
the rafters, three pipes moulded as tree
trunks and lit from within. The perform-
ers— costumed by Filippía Elísdóttir in a
casual dark suit and sneakers (Reijo), a
voluminous long white dress with a train
(María) and a gigantic long black dress
(Eivör) —waited in the first row.
What ensued was a strange journey/
love story/death quest, simultaneously
everyday and other-worldly. Reija at-
tempted to negotiate the maze but, find-
ing it non-negotiable, retired to the side.
María tried next but quickly gave up and
ran over to beseech Reija instead. A little
persuasion got him to roll slowly across
the stage with her until, unsatisfied, he
threw her off.
The pattern of seduction and rejection,
accompanied by percussive sounds and
vocalisation without words, continued—
though things got weirder. He appeared
in a fur coat and antlers, they climbed
the trees, he had her on his tool belt,
he rode her giant train as she pulled
him around the maze on her hands
and knees, destroying any remaining
labyrinth pattern. In the end, Kela ran a
victory lap and María was replaced by
Eivör, singing a passionate song.
Love, death, rebirth, contradictory de-
sires—so it goes. The work appealed be-
cause of its ambiguity, unexpectedness,
subtlety and detail. Rather than going
for shock and awe (run for the smoke
machines), the creators kept it human-
sized.
ICELANDIC WORK
If there is one artist you can count on
appearing in any collection of dance
and dance-theatre works in Iceland, it
is Erna Ómarsdóttir. For the Arts Festi-
val, she presented ‘We Saw Monsters’,
which, like many of her works for her
own group of performers, focused on
contradictions, inside us and in the
world. Good/evil, self/other, creation/
destruction, life/death—these are her
big themes (she also has a healthy inter-
est in the grotesque). But just because
Ómarsdóttir returns to the same ideas—
and re-uses many of the same dramatic
devices—doesn’t mean her most recent
piece isn’t worth seeing. In fact, ‘We Saw
Monsters’ turned out to be one of her
strongest works, filled with luscious im-
agery and boasting a clear structure.
The work began with two blond girls
outfitted in pink dresses and white
stockings, a good sign that bad things
were about to happen (they also con-
torted their bodies in unladylike ways).
A protracted death scene followed. The
death scene was accompanied by sweet
lullaby music, meaning that screeching
guitars came next (the music was by
Valdimar Jóhannsson). Accompanying
the ear-splitting music was hair spin-
ning, throwing one’s body around, sex
and screaming; the smoke machine
too. Later elements included prosthetic
hands and copious fake blood.
All this demonstrated Erna’s un-paral-
leled skill at image creation. But what re-
ally made the work (or, more accurately,
much of Erna’s body of work) sui generis
was the marriage of the intellectual and
the visual/dramatic. A scythe becomes a
phallus, a butcher a butterfly—at a good
Erna piece, you don’t need a programme
to tell you what the piece is about (and
it is about something, or many things).
Erna also appeared in ‘Six Pairs’, an eve-
ning of original work commissioned by
the Festival and RÚV (to be included in
a series of TV programmes next year). A
half-dozen Icelandic choreographers (all
the usual suspects, except Margrét Sara
Guðjónsdóttir) were matched with the
same number of Icelandic composers,
and each came up with 10 to 15 min-
ute work. The pieces fell into two camps:
clever concepts (Margrét Bjarnadóttir
set two performers a-play with mirrors;
Steinunn Ketilsdóttir cast a spell; Erna
showed us her Icelandic tongue) and
traditional dances works (Helena Jóns-
dóttir, Sigríður Soffía Níelsdóttir, Lára
Stefánsdóttir).
Dance At The Arts Festival
Or: Life of a Reykjavík dance fan
‘The Journey of the Phoenix’, May
24 and 25, the City Theatre
‘We Saw Monsters’, May 20 and
21, the National Theatre
‘Six Pairs’, May 31, Tjarnarbíó
‘Haze’, June 4, the National
Theatre
‘Opening Night’, May 22, the City
Theatre
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