Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2012, Page 34

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 7 — 2012
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – Eddas and Sagas
The ancient vellums on display.
MILLENNIUM
Icelandic art through the ages. Phase one.
CHILD OF HOPE – Youth and Jón Sigurðsson
Tribute to the leader of the independence movement.
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · thjodmenning.is · kultur.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL
MANUSCRIPTS weekdays at 3 pm,
except Wednesdays.
On an international scale, Erna
Ómarsdóttir is undoubtedly
Iceland’s best-known contem-
porary dancer. Tickling Death
Machine is her most recent
project, which she describes
as a ‘concert performance’
and collaboration with her
partner Valdimar Jóhannsson,
the couple’s band Lazyblood
and his band Reykjavík! The
project is currently touring
the world, with performances
lined up as far away as Kyoto,
Japan.
The text accompanying some
of your latest pieces—in the
promotional material and on
your website—is quite beauti-
ful, poetic even. Do you work
that way, conceive of your
pieces first in words?
That’s always the problem, you
know, putting it into words. Be-
cause it’s so much about physi-
cal expression: the dance and
the music. But to me they have
always intertwined, the ugly and
the beautiful. The beauty is in the
ugliness and vice versa. We use a
lot of elements from metal—like
the scream and things like that,
which people may not think of as
beautiful at first. But to me there’s
always some beauty to it. I try to
find a balance between the harsh
and the poetic. I often describe
it even as satanic versus angelic.
There is always tension there in
between.
What about this latest piece,
Tickling Death Machine? What
are its roots?
It was an idea Valdi and I got in
Australia. We went to a concert
and there was this one concert-
goer who was in such a trance, he
was just having such a good time.
And it was incredibly beautiful
to see, especially because this
wasn’t the usual kind of music to
be in a trance over. So we start-
ed thinking about the spectator,
thinking about him as the main
focus, without necessarily think-
ing about doing anything with
audience-participation.
Usually I use elements from
the concert form, or the music
realm, and put them into a dance
performance. But now it’s the op-
posite—this is a concert entwined
with theatrical elements. It’s not
necessarily dance or choreogra-
phy. We’re just using that which
pertains to the concert format,
like head-banging, which is my
favourite dance-step of all time
and which I have used a lot. And
also looking at the idea of the
space between songs, what hap-
pens there, in the pause.
Does that mean that you start-
ed with the music, and worked
out from that?
We started first and foremost with
the concept. There are new songs
and there are also songs that
have been done before but put
in another costume, so to speak.
People who know the music of
Reykjavík! are going to recognise
some stuff, but the songs are cho-
sen with a certain script in mind
and are used in a new way. So this
idea became a reality when Valdi
and I were doing a little concert
in Reykjavík, the town, and the
band Reykjavík! was playing af-
ter us. There was a programmer
there from the Kunsten Festival
Des Arts, which is one of the main
alternative performance art fes-
tivals in the world, really. And he
loved the energy from both bands
and knew that we were related as
Valdi was in both bands and very
instinctively he invited us to make
a project together and premiere it
at his festival.
Also music from you and Valdi
in Lazyblood?
Yes. It’s completely mixed. Really
I think Lazyblood, our band, came
about sort of as a result of this
project. Or the other way around.
But we’re playing around with the
rock’n’roll image. It’s interesting
to compare rock idols and proph-
ets. This power or influence that
you have when you are on stage,
that you can almost brainwash
your audience. That’s where the
prophets come in. There’s a little
bit of tension between the rock
stars and the prophets. There
are a few of us, and we’re always
trying somehow to convince the
spectators. We are preaching a
certain message, but we’re not
entirely on the same page... it’s
almost this idea of trying to free
the spectator from the oppression
of the body, to lift the spirit onto
another level. Which music does
a lot of the time. Music and dance
and the arts, they can save lives, I
would say. I believe very strongly
in these art forms. That they are
often the best medicine.
You said something similar the
last time you were interviewed
for the Grapevine, that without
dance you would have died.
Yes, I’m always thinking the same
things. Maybe I would have found
something else. But no, I think
this was my way. The starting
point for me is always dance, but I
still find it very difficult to keep to
one art form, and that has led me
into working with musicians and
visual artists and there was a cer-
tain freedom for me in discovering
how concerts work. Because the
theatre is so often nailed down,
everything has to happen on cue.
With music it’s the same way to
a certain extent but then there
is this phenomenon of the pause
between songs, this space, which
is so fascinating to me.
But these prophets, are they
all sort of right in a certain
way?
That’s the question, whether or
not the prophets are achieving
that they’re setting out to do, or
whether we are false prophets.
Mostly they are trying to get peo-
ple to enjoy all the pleasures of
life, but I’m pushing more for the
spiritual aspects. Especially this
idea of dancing your pain away,
dancing your brain away; head-
banging yourself headless.
It’s almost like meditation, the
movement is a mantra.
We’re trying to exaggerate this
feeling one often gets when one
goes to a good concert. But like
I said, I think it’s incredible how
some people are able to reach the
masses. So in a sense we believe
in it, we hope to be able to free
audiences, even if it’s only for a
few seconds.
Art | Performance
Tickle Against The Machine
Words
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
photography
Alísa Kalyanova
“Usually I use elements from the concert form, or the
music realm, and put them into a dance performance.
But now it’s the opposite—this is a concert entwined
with theatrical elements”
The Tickling Death Machine will be performed at 21:00 on June 8 at Iðnó.