An open preview at DansiT’s Svartlamon studios offered audiences a first encounter with SIYA, an ongoing performance project by choreographer and dancer Carl Aquilizan.

During the week-long residency, Carl and the company focused deeply on both artistic and personal development.

“It has been amazing to have a space where we could fully dedicate ourselves to the project,” says Aquilizan.

The residency also allowed the Oslo-based team to grow closer: “We’ve lived and cooked together, and worked solely on the project, which brought us closer as a team.”

In SIYA, Aquilizan aims for a layered audience experience: “I hope the performance conveys both joy and sorrow, light and darkness. Audiences from the Global South may see themselves in the movements and visuals, while others will still have a powerful physical experience.”

The project challenges conventional ideas of gender, identity, and culture, opening up for complexity and new ways of being.

“It’s about questioning norms and binary structures – not just gender, but identity and culture – and allowing complexity to exist.”

The Trondheim preview was a valuable encounter with the audience: “It was our first showing, and it felt vulnerable. The audience’s warmth gave us confidence, and the feedback will guide the next stage.”

SIYA now enters an intensive phase, to be completed over five weeks, followed by a premiere and four performances at Dansens Hus in Oslo. It will also be presented at the Multiplié Dance Festival in Trondheim on April 21, and at Sandnes Kulturhus this autumn.