Göteborgs Operans Dans kompani

As one of the foremost contemporary dance companies in Europe and the largest in the Nordic region, GöteborgsOperansDanskompani is truly a company of today.

GöteborgsOperansDanskompani focuses on original and exclusive works. With access to legendary choreographers as well as some of the most interesting new generation of dance makers and artists, the company contributes towards new expressions and the generation of new exciting art forms. GöteborgsOperansDanskompani is made up of 38 dancers from all over the world.

Since August 2016, Icelandic Katrín Hall is the Artistic Director of GöteborgsOperansDanskompani. The current season, however, has been planned by her predecessor, Adolphe Binder who provided every season with a theme, leading up to the present one: Icons & Iconoclasm.
GöteborgsOperanDanskompani is a frequently invited guest for international, special performances. Cities visited include Antwerp, Bruges (Belgium), Paris (France), Amsterdam, Groningen, The Hague (Netherlands), Tel Aviv (Israel), Montreal (Canada), Oslo, Stavanger (Norway), Lisbon (Portugal), Barcelona, Madrid (Spain), Stockholm (Sweden), Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Weimar, Wolfsburg (Germany), Budapest (Hungary), Chapel Hill, Portland, Washington (USA), St Pölten (Austria) and more.

Artist Director：Katrín Hall

Katrín Hall was the Artistic Director of Iceland Dance Company from 1996-2012. Under her direction the company worked with many of Europe’s leading international choreographers such as Ohad Naharin, Jiří Kylián, Alexander Ekman, Stijn Celis, Anton Lachky, Alan Lucien Øyen, Ina Christel Johannessen, Jo Strømgren, Rami Beer, Itzik Galili, Rui Horta, Damien Jalet, Didy Veldman and many more. She also put emphasis on nurturing and supporting Icelandic choreographers and talents such as Erna Ómarsdóttir. Katrín Hall created a strong image for the Iceland Dance Company and positioned it as a world class contemporary dance company. Under her direction Iceland Company toured extensively throughout Europe, USA, Canada and China. Integration of the arts and cooperation with artists from other fields was at the forefront in the company’s creations and projects, in particular collaboration with Icelandic composers and musicians. Katrín Hall initiated collaborations with many of the leading composers and musicians in the Icelandic music scene.

Alongside her career as an Artistic Director, Katrín Hall has also been a prolific choreographer. She has created a number of works for the Iceland Dance Company as well as other international dance companies in Germany, Austria, Sweden and USA. In 2013, she founded her own production company in 2013 together with ex dancers from Iceland Dance Company, producing creations in Iceland as well as touring to Russia and Denmark. Katrín Hall has been nominated for several awards for her creations.

Katrín Hall started her career as a dancer at young age with Iceland Dance Company. She took part in most of the company´s productions from 1981-1988. Katrín Hall then moved to Germany and worked as a solo dancer at Tanzforum in Cologne under the artistic direction of Jochen Ulrich. Katrín worked with various other choreographers during her time with Tanzforum and toured internationally with the company.

As well as creating and choreographing her own work, Katrin Hall has worked for different theatre and musical productions as well as television. She has also created dance movies (including the international successful Burst in cooperation with film director Reynir Lyndal) and choreographed music videos (including pop star Shakira’s single Did it again. Katrín Hall has also worked as a choreographer for the UK version of the popular BBC TV show So you think you can dance. Katrín Hall also works as a teacher and a coach – both as a guest teacher for various international dance companies as well as being a regular teacher at the Arts Academy in Iceland. She has been on the jury for various choreographic and dance competitions through the years – in 2013 she was a jury member in the well-established and respected international Choreographic competition in Hannover.

Katrín was awarded the Order of the Falcon by the President of Iceland in 2000 for her contribution and work for the dance community in Iceland.

Programme: Noetic

Dance performance by SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI 

Multiple award winning and constantly topical Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui creates Noetic, along with a distinguished team comprising sculptor Antony Gormley, fashion designer duo Les Hommes, and composer Szymon Brzóska.

‘Noetic’ has become an unusually rich, consummate choreography…— GT/Expressen

The creation explores man’s instinctive need to structure every detail of our existence, and our longing to break free of the rules and discover what lies beyond them. With at times mechanical, at times flowing, classical movements, the dancers construct, change and deconstruct reality.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s roots are in the cultures of both Morocco and Central Europe. His artistic identity has been influenced by many years of involvement in the Belgian dance company Les Ballets C de la B, whose work belongs among the most exciting things to have happened within dance in recent decades.
Cherkaoui is known for bringing together art forms, cultures and traditions. His dance company, Eastman, is attributed the title of European cultural ambassadors in 2013. The harmonic and emotional music in Noetic is composed for The Göteborg Opera Orchestra.

Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened up by sculpture in the seventies through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others  in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. 

Antony Gormley and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui have collaborated on three previous projects; Sutra, Babel and Zero Degrees. His set design for Noetic will give the dancers both bodily extensions and the constructive elements to create a potential architecture for individual and collective action.

Programme: Untitled Black

Untitled Black by Sharon Eyal/Gai Behar is pure, multi-layered, emotional choreography. Through its atmospheric and futuristic movement, embedded in a structure of strong composition, it takes us into a fantastic parallel universe. Live music by DJ Ori Lichtik plays an important role. Untitled Black has been created specifically for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and eight dancers from Batsheva Dance Company.

Sharon Eyal danced with Batsheva Dance Company from 1990 until 2008 and began choreographing within the framework of the company’s Batsheva Dancers Create project. She served as Associate Artistic Director of Batsheva 2003–2004, and House Choreographer 2005–2012. In 2009 Eyal began creating works for other dance companies around the world. Eyal is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2004 Ministry of Culture Award for young dance creators and the 2009 Landau Prize for the Performing Arts in the dance category. In 2008, she was named a Chosen Artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation. Between 1999–2005 Gai Behar produced live music and underground artistic events, alongside techno raves. This underground line included a wandering sound system and raves in deserted buildings, basements and parking lots, in which live performances and installations by plastic artists took part. As of 2005 Gai has been collaborating with Sharon Eyal.