Dramaturgy seminar: Dramaturgy, Criticism & Conversation
Dansens Hus, in collaboration with Oslo National Academy of the Arts – department of dance, invites performers and creators within the dance and performing arts field to participate in seminars on different forms of dramaturgical thinking.
DAY 1 – the seminar:
Saturday 09. May 2026
Time: 10:00-16:00
Language: Norwegian
Participation is free of charge, but you need to register:
Criticism is often understood as something that is applied to a performance from the outside, while dramaturgy is something that is part of the work from the inside. But can criticism also be a part of the interior, and dramaturgy a useful tool on the outside? How does friendship shape the conversations we have with and about the arts, in and outside the process?
Critic Anette Therese Pettersen has experience from the roles of producer, dramaturg, editor and curator, and will in this seminar explore these roles as ways of “doing” dramaturgy. In Pettersen’s practice, these roles are about finding ways to be in conversation with and in the arts, and finding entry points for exploration. She has worked with choreographer Henriette Pedersen for many years, in official as well as unofficial roles, and has invited Pedersen to join her in conversation in this seminar. Pettersen will start the seminar with a lecture on criticism and dramaturgy, before joining Pedersen in a conversation about dramaturgy from their respective practices. Conversation and friendship will be both material and topic in this seminar.
The conversation will be in Norwegian-
Accessibility information:
Step-free access space with accessible toilet
Information about accessibility measures will be announced.
Please let us know of any access requirements in advance.
For accessibility information, please contact:
Jo Even Bjørke
+47 932 47 111
joeven@dansenshus.com
Address:
Dansens Hus
Vulkan 1
0182 Oslo
DAY 2 – practicum
Sunday 10. May 2026
Individual timeslots
To register for a session discussing a process, project, an idea or a performance, please send an e-mail to billettsalg@dansenshus.com
Mark the e-mail with PRACTICUM.
Address
Oslo National Academy of the Arts – studio 12, building 3.4
Fossveien 24,
0551 Oslo
Bios:
Anette Therese Pettersen is a dance and theatre critic who recently finished a PhD that explores possible critical practices for youths. Ever since she took her MA in theatre studies twenty years ago, she has worked as a critic as well as producer, editor, curator and dramaturg. These roles have all been ways of “doing” theatre or performance studies; to actively use and learn theory, and updating oneself in the performing arts, and in the process also deciding how this is performed. All of these roles are motivated by the same interest: To be in an ongoing conversation in, around and through the arts. To find methods for collective thinking and writing, making structures for exploration. After theatre studies was closed down at the University of Oslo in 2014, this became more crucial. This is most likely also partly why dance has come to take up more space in the practice of this critic: The field of dance is where the main development of discourse within Norwegian performing arts takes place – as well as having stronger ties to fields outside the borders of Norway.
Henriette Pedersen / Nartmanstiftelsen has confused many genres over the years with her hybrid of theater, visual arts and dance. Pedersen is interested in the transcendent and the marginal zones of human presence. She is inspired by indecencies, and through her artistry she always explores norms, the regimes of reason and the law and order of patriarchy. With a gender perspective, she examines collective perceptions and mythical narratives. Her stage works are known for being aesthetic, kinesthetic, cruel and crazy. Pedersen makes her audience cry and laugh. Not necessarily with humor and certainly not with seriousness. www.henriettepedersen.no
The seminar series is curated by Bojana Cvejić (SRB/BE/NO), freelance dramaturg and Professor of Dance Theory (KHiO), whose work also includes self-organizing collective platforms of self-education and experimental production. She is author of several books ranging from performance studies, dance dramaturgy and political theory (among which Choreographing Problems, 2015, and Toward a Transindividual Self, co-written with Ana Vujanović).