Residens uke 46 / 2024

During the research at DansiT,  Ellen Jerstad from Scenekunstkompaniet Øy and Georgiana Dobre will focus on investigating the zombie trope as both a queer and untamed, monstrous body, but also as a mirror of society’s obsession with superficiality and mechanical anti-aging disorders.

Through mythology, climate anxiety, melodrama, lip-sinking, and black-metal vocal practices, the movement research will particularly focus on enacting cut-up scenes from the 1996 neo-noir erotic-lesbian crime thriller Bound written and directed by the Wachowski sisters. The speech and bodily movements of the two main characters of the film – Violet and Corky, will be fragmented and re-sampled into a study of possible choreographic scripts. 

Under these interests, the aim of the research is to embody the image of the zombie as a metaphor for consumerism – the zombie-pornographic present-day apocalypse.

“When the real world changes into simple images, simple images become real beings and effective motivations of a hypnotic behavior.” (Debord, “The Society of the Spectacle”)

Om kunstnerne

Ellen Jerstad (she/her) is an interdisciplinary director, designer, performer and playwright whose work mixes ecology, mythology and speculative narrative. She has a master’s degree in theater from the Academy of Arts in Oslo and has studied dance and theater at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Jerstad creates immersive, sensory-based landscapes that explore transformation, connection and the longing for community. She has recently created works for Teater Innlandet, Unge Viken Teater, Ultimafestivalen and Dansens Hus. As the driving force behind Øy, she works to challenge conventional narratives and redefine contemporary performance.

Georgiana Dobre (she/they) is a Romanian dancer, performer and choreographer who lives and works in Norway. She has a master’s degree in choreography from the University of the Arts in Oslo and a bachelor’s degree in dance practice and choreography from the National University of Theater and Film in Bucharest. Deeply immersed in speculative somatic practices and driven by references from queer, neo-materialist and posthuman theory, her work explores ideas related to the naturalization of the body and its forms of escapism in relation to histories of violence and climate collapse. Georgiana has recently shown her work at Suprainfinit Gallery, Sandefjord Kunstforening, Høstutstillingen, Knipsu Gallery, TOU in Stavanger, National Dance Center and MNAC – Museum of Contemporary Art.