Suspiria23

Witch! – on the stage and screen

A panel discussion about the witch, prominent female figures, and how the ritual is linked to choreography, dance and the performing arts.

    In Pix on Art at Dansens Hus, feature films and documentaries are shown that all deal with dance and performativity, feminism, the alternative and the supernatural.

    The witch stands out as a feminist symbol - a figure for resistance that counters masculine power structures and the patriarchy. With their association with sorcery, ritual and the supernatural, the depiction of witches often touches on the monstrous, mysterious and unknown. Witchcraft is linked to the body and the ritual, aspects that are also leading within performing arts and various forms of dance practice.

    Moderator is film promoter and cultural critic Helene Aalborg. The panel includes dance artist Marie Ursin, stage artist Trine Falch, and filmmaker Itonje Guttormsen.

    Helene Aalborg is a professional film feminist. She works as a cultural critic and film curator, and is the founder and director of the feminist film festival Femfilm Oslo. Helene loves dark stories and devours most everything she comes across about witches, whether it's on film/TV, in literature, music or otherwise. She is also the distributor of*- newsletter about film and feminism, where witches and horror films is a regular theme.

    Trine Falch is a stage artist with a background in theater studies (UiB), Verdensteatret and Baktruppen. She has previously worked as a performance artist and actor, and is now a playwright and director in Susie Wang.

    Marie Ursin works with dance, choreography, curation and organization which is always based on collaborative processes and hybrid formats. She is interested in the performer's unique logic, oversized projects that take on a character of their own and creating different spaces for togetherness. Since 2013, in collaboration with Alexandra Tveit, she has been the artistic director of Scene:Bluss; an annual experimental residency project that gets a new format and theme every year. In 2021 she won the competition 8:tension Young Choreographers' Award during ImPulsTanz in Vienna together with Tamara Alegre and Lydia Östberg Diakité for the performance FIEBRE. In 2022, she created the installation performance born slippy at Spriten art gallery in collaboration with Alexandra Tveit, dragongirl, Kornelia Remø Klokk, Alma Bø and Georgiana Dobre.

    Itonje Søimer Guttormsen is a filmmaker living in Oslo, with education from the European Film College in Denmark, the Norwegian Film School and Akademin Valand in Sweden. Her short film RETREAT about the troublesome performance artist Gry-Jeanette Dahl aka Gritt made a name for herself at festivals at home and abroad in 2016, and in 2021 she released the feature film GRITT, which had its international premiere in the main competition in Rotterdam. Itonje leads the sporadic performance group "Lilithistene", which was most recently seen at Akershus Art Center in spring 2020, and is the founder of the art film festival ByFlimmer and KORET. She is currently working on her second feature BUTTERFLY, produced by Mer Film, and has developed a "Lilithistic production method" to promote artistic freedom and daring.

    , 30. - 31. August 2023