Meeting with Silje Onstad Hålien - If I don't get to dance, I'll die.
Photo: Tanja Steen
- We are made to move, that's what we are made for! There is no such thing as "I can't dance". You were born to dance! -Silje Onstad Hålien is the artistic director of the new production "The Old are the Oldest". Here she talks about her path into dance and the life force that comes from being able to dance.
I think the audience will be surprised by the performance "The Old Are the Oldest". Many people have seen these dancers in a competition. But they have not seen them together like this. It is the very life force that enters the stage. They have a weight in their dance that we young people can only dream of! The wisdom they invoke after walking so many laps on the floor, I am completely moved when I try to describe this. I feel so lucky! To be able to stand on stage and dance with them, as an equal, is great!
Just seeing bodies that are no longer young dancing on a stage. That in itself is powerful. It comes to everyone, the feeling of being old, of being tired, of being in pain. We can't do what we used to. One of the dancers who is involved is Ingar Ranheim. He is one of my truly great teachers. I remember so many great moments where he has watched my dance and given me support, before the landscape play for example. He has taught so many. He is a legend in the dance community. Ingar has developed Parkinson's. It is so indescribably powerful that he is involved. He can struggle to get up, struggle to walk. But when the music is playing, he can still dance!
“ - This project has been so important to me. I have met them all, alone, one by one. Hear them talk about their path into dance, about their lives and values, about what dance has given them. I feel that I have gained stronger roots from being with these guys, and that I myself have grown both as a person and a dancer. ”
- If I can't dance, I'll die, Tuva sings somewhere in the vision. That's the feeling I'm still with. They still have such a strong life force, these guys. They are dancers! Not many people keep up with them!
- It has been so important to me, this project. I have met them all, alone, one by one. Hear them talk about their path into dance, about their lives and values, about what dance has given them. I feel that I have gained stronger roots from being with these guys, and that I myself have grown both as a person and a dancer.
- There are some hilarious stories that come to light, I have never laughed so much while working on a stage production! We have a choreographer who has started writing down the highlights from each rehearsal and sending them out by email afterwards. We laugh so hard! Then there is also time to "nerd out" - go into this and that turn or that and that roof. - Oh, you do it like that! I have never seen that before, I want to try that. In this way, working on the show has given me more to play with as a folk dancer.
I think it has been very good to be their guide. I feel that they have trust and respect for the work I have done in staging the folk dance.
Created to dance
- We are made to move, that's what we're made for! There's no such thing as "I can't dance". You were born to dance! It's just that we've entered a culture that has led us away from all of this, towards a passive and sedentary existence.
I am a champion of bringing more physical stimulation into society! For example, I travel a lot on the subway. Then I can suddenly get an impulse to stretch. And then I do it! I stand on the subway and stretch out, arms above my head, upwards, forwards, backwards. It is completely taboo! But what I experience then is that someone starts to twist their neck a little, maybe straighten their back, breathe a little deeper.
Photo: Thor Hauknes
For me, it was incredibly lucky that I found dance, there I found a space where I could express myself. I had enough talent for it, I had gone to gymnastics. I still think it was a bit random, I dabbled in painting and drawing, I dabbled in music. But with dance: It just clicked! Suddenly I realized that I could dance out my feelings, suddenly I realized that dance could be that, for me. I was very shy and insecure, but I enjoyed myself on stage. There I dared to enter spaces that I otherwise hardly dared to talk about.
“ I am a champion of bringing more physical stimulation into society! For example, I travel a lot on the subway. Then I can suddenly get an impulse to stretch. And then I do it! I stand on the subway and stretch out, arms above my head, upwards, forwards, backwards. It is completely taboo! But what I experience then is that someone starts to twist their neck a little, maybe straighten their back, breathe a little deeper. ”
I have a strong memory of one of the first experiences of this: I had a good friend in high school who lost her mother in tragic circumstances. It was so painful, for the whole class. Then my teacher said: See if you can bring some of this into your dance! I remember it so well. It was a really powerful experience. I remember the movement, I remember the smell in the dance hall, I remember how my stomach twisted. I could dance it out!
I've seen the same thing in others, it's as if it's not really me there on stage, I'm just a channeling, I create a form. It's the experience and the feeling that counts. When I went to ballet school, I wasn't the one with the best technique in the class, but I had learned to immerse myself in it, I became visible! There was a choreographer who asked me if I could tone down my expression a bit because I was taking up so much space.
Photo: Thor Hauknes
There is no off button on me!
In "The Oldest" it is Tuva Syvertsen who has composed the music. I am so happy with what she does musically! She has the ability to enter the musical expression and twist it a little, pull it out in several directions, that is truly a great strength for this project. Where the performers are so strongly rooted in tradition, the music can help us to stretch the mold a little, create something new.
I have never danced to recorded music, I have been lucky enough to have worked with live music all my life. I want the musicians on the floor, to see the dancers being comforted and moved by the music. If dance is to have any value, it must touch the audience, the way the music touches the dancer. No matter how old he is. He is born to dance. If he is not allowed to dance, he dies.