WHY SOLO? with Jens Jeffry Trinidad

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Date: Saturday September 26, 2026
Time: 11:00-16:00
Language: Norwegian
Accessibility information: Step-free entrance with accessible toilet

WHY SOLO? is a space for practical reflection around solo dance. We invite artists to present their methods and approaches to the solo dance format, both through conversation, presentation and practice. The room is then opened up and the studio stage at Dansens Hus is made available as a work space where participants can work freely.

Jens Jeffry Trinidad presents his solo practice:

I am fascinated by the complexity of how social dances create connections, atmospheres, and interactions between bodies on a level deeper than what is visible on the surface. I am less interested in form and technique for their own sake, and more in physical contact, intimacy, rhythm, tension, affect, and the social and cultural significance that emerges through dance.

In my practice, I seek out the sensory, a sense of presence, and new entry points for dance and movement, approaches that may also abstract, disrupt, or shift a meaning, a state, or an expression.

Working with solo performance can be a way to challenge one’s own habits, a practice of listening, owning, understanding, cultivating patience, and so on.

For me, it involves a continuous negotiation between the personal and the performative, which has brought new depth and interest to familiar practices.

In this session, I would like to lead a group warm-up that culminates in improvisation. There may also be time for writing and sharing experiences.
 

Biography:
Jens Jeffry Trinidad is a Filipino-Norwegian dance artist and choreographer with a background from the X-Ray Youth Culture House in Oslo, where he began dancing hip-hop in the late 1990s. He is a member of the dance crew Cre-8 (formerly Dancing Youth). With roots in street and club dance, he has worked since 2006 as a freelance performer, educator, and artist within the performing arts and television sectors.

He has collaborated with choreographers such as Hooman Sharifi/Impure Company, Elle Sofe Sara, Manuel Pelmuş, Panta Rei Danseteater, Rosalind Goldberg, Camilla Tellefsen, Chriz Nypan, Anne Golberg Stavn, Harald Beharie, Viktor Fröjd, Ingeleiv Berstad, and Pernille Holden.

In his own projects and artistic work, Jens explores choreography from a bodily and performative perspective, where the performing body serves as the driving force in both the creative process and on stage. Grounded in club and street dance, his work moves fluidly between contemporary dance and performance, where various dance forms and expressions meet expanded choreographic and performative frameworks.

Trinidad also co-established MUD-Session Oslo (a concept developed by MAWU, New York) in 2015, as well as the street dance program at Edvard Munch Upper Secondary School in 2014.

Jens received the Government Grant for Artists for the period 2015–2017 and again from 2021 to 2023. He is also employed by the Norwegian Actors' and Dancers' Alliance.

In 2024, Jens Jeffry Trinidad was awarded the Rolf Gammeleng Prize. In 2025, he was nominated for the Hedda Award in the "Best Stage Performance" category for the production Undersang. That same year, he received the Gulljerven—Scenekunstbruket’s award for "Artistic Achievement of the Year."