WILDERNESS GOES WILD IN EAST ICELAND

Wilderness dance, the largest ever residency programme for dance companies in the Nordic/ Baltic region, has been in east Iceland for the last 6 weeks.

Two of the ten companies chosen out of 110 applications, stayed for their first residencies in Iceland and two more are about to commence their first stays in Norway and Finland.

Altogether the 10 companies will stay in 20 residencies from January 2013 – May 2014 in 10 different locations in 5 countries.

SWUFUS FROM LATVIA – residency in Höfn í Hornafirði, Iceland January 18th – February 6th 2013 Swufus took Höfn by storm and Höfn stormed them. They experienced all types of weather as is to be expected in an Icelandic wilderness location. Their stay is well documented on the Wilderness blog, with personal texts about their days, videos and photos. http://kedjawilderness.tumblr.com/

The group held workshops for youth of all ages and presented their work at the end of their stay both in Höfn on February 3rd and at the Dance atelier in Reykjavik on February 5th under the title “Naked Happiness”. Wilderness host in Höfn is the local cultural centre.

Swufus developed their artistic idea on human identity in Iceland and through various interactions with locals, tested pre conceptions on what makes a Latvian. One of the central themes was the “Latvian myth” on the famous belt Icelandic Viking Egill Skallagrimsson, stole from the Latvian nation.

Video from Höfn

And a video from Reykjavik

Photos from final presentation in Reykjavik:

Before Swufus departed the island the multi – national collective Foreign Mountain arrived and a breakfast was arranged

FOREIGN MOUNTAIN from 4 countries – residency in Fljótsdalshérað Iceland February 5th – 26th 2013

The Danish/ Finnish/Lithuanian/Icelandic collective Foreign mountain spent three weeks at the Slaughterhouse cultural centre in Fljotsdalsherad/Egilsstaðir researching for their artistic idea. Their approach was to interview large numbers of locals from various professions to find out about the community, the lives and longings of the people of Egilsstadir. Their presentation of their dance work in progress “Organ orchestra” was held at the Slaughterhouse in February 23rd which was also the publishing date of their magazine “Foreign Mountain in Egilsstaðir” Arriving in Reykjavik they hosted a seminar on Feb 26th at the Dance atelier where they told audience about the “wild – east” experience.

Ásrún Magnúsdóttir, a member of Foreign Mountain had this to say after the residency.

"The people of Egilsstaðir are one of a kind and our stay there has really widened our horizon”

The start of Wilderness has been well documented in the Icelandic media. Here are 2 examples

RUV televison news February 23rd 2013 Dans in the Slautherhouse

RUV radio programme Vidsja February 6th 2013 – interview with both groups (31,57 min) Interview with Foreign Mountain

Wilderness dance is supported by
The Cultural Programme of the European Union, the Nordic Culture Fund and the Kulturkontact Nord.

Partners are
SL Indpendent theatres along with PAI, Iceland
Bora Bora, Denmark
Dansearena Nord , Norway
MAD Productions, Finland
New Latvian Theatre Institute, Latvial