WHITEOUT – Geir Hytten (NO)

Can our collective blindness to the climate crisis be described as a whiteout?

In WHITEOOUT, you encounter an unsettling feeling— inner turmoil. Exposed to a strange white light, you enter a state known as “whiteout,” where visibility is swallowed by snow and familiar reference points vanish. Can our collective blindness to the climate crisis be described as a kind of whiteout?

Three dancers leave traces, get stuck, and slowly work themselves free. Together with the audience, they enter a shared, strenuous state where ambiguous visions emerge. Are you seeing something that isn’t there—hallucinations—or simply slipping into another mode of perception? What does it mean to stand together in uncertainty?

WHITEOUT is the second performance in Hytten’s trilogy, based on his master’s thesis in human geography, each work exploring different facets of affect. Through aesthetic work, Hytten seeks to create a consciousness for understanding climate change in new ways.

This performance searches for strategies to bring forth the unresolved—those gnawing emotions that won’t let go and pull you through uncomfortable scenic encounters. The dance resists resolution, becoming a mirror of our times, prompting the question: Where are we really headed?

In our efforts to meet the demands of climate action, we may feel overwhelmed and exhausted by the task’s apparent impossibility and our lack of mastery. Rather than portraying uncertainty as purely negative or problematic, this work opens up a more exploratory and open-ended starting point. The performance becomes an argument that even battles that seem hopeless are never truly lost, reflecting the historical shifts that have emerged from the darkest places.

Credits

Choreographer: Geir Hytten
Dancers: Jens Jeffrey Trinidad, Emilie Marie Karlsen, Geir Hytten
Musician and composer: Kristoffer Lislegaard
Lighting designer: Martin Myrvold
Scenographer and costume designer: Camille Wexels Riser
Artistic catalysist: Terje Tjøme Mossige
Outside eye: Rosalind Goldberg
Photo: Tale Hendnes/Dansens Hus

Co-production: Dansens Hus, RAS (Regional arena for samtidsdans, Sandnes), DansiT.
Supported by: Kulturrådet Fri Scenekunst – prosjekt (dans), Fond for lyd og bilde, Fond for utøvende kunstnere (FFUK)

About the artist

Geir Hytten is a Norwegian dancer and choreographer. He holds an MA in Dance from Laban in London and an MPhil in Human Geography from the University of Oslo. In the UK, he danced for a decade with Punchdrunk, as well as with Lea Anderson and Complicite. He has collaborated with choreographers such as Jo Strømgren, Impure Company, Karstein Solli, and Deborah Hay, among others. His own works include hello brother, greif will be our companion, and Red Flag, all presented at Rosendal Teater. WHITEOUT premiered at Dansens Hus in autumn 2024.