Is there anyone who isn’t vulnerable?
In the darkest hours of the year 2017, in the cold December of Reykjavík, choreographer and artistic director of Iceland Dance Company Erna Ómarsdóttir and artist Valdimar Jóhannsson were invited by Sigur Rós to create a new dance work to their latest music for the Norður og Niður (North and Down) Festival, which was the band’s answer to the consumeristic hype of the capitalism-driven Christmas holidays. The company then set out on its own electrifying quest to reveal and confront the haunting uncertainties and inner demons that can twist and upturn lives in the absence of light. The work was inspired by the dark burdens of the patriarchal and power- hungry institutions that have oppressed the masses throughout history, and in a sense became a tool for the artists to exorcise these ancient demons from their souls and bodies.
In this powerful final work of a four-part series focused on the night within and vulnerability of the body, the ethereal rock music of Sigur Rós – some previously unreleased – is teamed with the company’s leading-edge contemporary dancers. The emotive performers roar, scream, become limp or highly charged as they wrestle with old ghosts yet also find the way to embrace darkness as a place to rest, dream, and be at one with themselves. A must-see reflection of our times.

Stretching physical frontiers,Soaring beyond boundaries
In addition to transforming Big Top razzmatazz into an art form, contemporary circus in the Nordics has developed a distinctive aesthetic all of its own, where music, drama, dance, acrobatics, and multimedia are ingeniously integrated into perspective-widening social commentary. In Limits, Sweden’s largest cirque nouveau focuses on compassion and the global refugee crisis. Here, those fleeing for their lives, only to be confronted with closed borders, find their counterparts in the performers’ risk-taking aerial acrobatics, teeterboard wizardry, and possibility-pushing juggling in a jaw-dropping display of physical and mental bravery, resilience, and creativity. A galvanising production offering an inspirational route to fresh understanding on displacement, barriers, and the essence of humanity.

Freeing the Body to Unmask the Soul
Using dance to perform Henrik Ibsen’s controversial 19th-century play provides the Norwegian National Ballet with a riveting way to explore the Pandora’s box of socially sensitive topics the tragedy tackles, including extramarital affairs, venereal disease, and religious tyranny. Directed by Ibsen specialist Marit Moum Aune, the production effectively recruits everyday movement and subverts conventional dance sequences to depict the power struggles between the sexes while multi-level sets ingeniously interweave characters’ past and present selves to counterpoint the realism with a more chimerical mood. A gripping and thought-provoking reinterpretation that dramatically speaks to the heart through body language alone.

Shaking off centuries-old stereotypes of hard living and wild ways, this entrancing circumpolar celebration heralds the individual cultures of indigenous peoples from the Arctic as well as their collective cry for recognition amid modern development. Commissioned by the Finnish National Theatre to commemorate the centenary of Finland’s independence in 2017, the remarkable collaboration with Ruska Ensemble and the National Theatre of Greenland forms the second part of an Arctic Trilogy exploring and strengthening Nordic identities, from Siberia to Greenland. Here, audiences in Hong Kong gain the rare chance to fathom the world through Chukchi legends, Inuit traditional masked dance, and modern Sami poems in a wondrous production blending ancient ways with future hopes and dreams.

With humans overwhelming nature and climate change descending into an eco-system emergency, what awaits our planet in the people-driven geological age of the Anthropocene? In this highly original operatheatre production, Danish performance art group Hotel Pro Forma, in collaboration with the Latvian Radio Choir, charts the “NeoArctic”, a crazy new world shaped by man. Blending heavenly and apocalyptic sounds with poignant lyrics by Sjon (who also writes for Bjork), spinetingling reverberation, stunning costumes, and video images, the visual-music journey stirringly addresses the vast changes underway – and what is at stake.

Ultra-cool existentialism from two masterly Finnish performers
A one-of-a-kind encounter with two magnetic Nordic Stars

Finland’s highly popular zither-linked kantele possesses an array of musical possibilities. Folk or classical, jazz or rock, the multi-stringed instrument with its bell-like resonances and a history of more than one thousand years injects zest and crossover potential to all. In this fascinating concert, singer-songwriter Maija Kauhanen, recipient of the 2017 Critics’ Spurs award for best artistic breakthrough from the Finnish Critics’ Association, showcases traditional kantele folk music with a contemporary twist. Combining a rare plectrum technique with a charismatic voice, extended songs, and imaginative vision, the mesmerising performer, together with electro-folk band Okra Playground, draws on the past to create distinctive soundscapes for today that both challenge and captivate audiences.

Beginning with the biological To bring performance alive
Director Eugenio Barba has been a pioneering force in European drama circles for over five decades following the launch of Odin Teatret, a sought-after multinational acting lab centred on Barba’s Theatre Anthropology approach. Drawing on an international array of artistic traditions, this vision of the dramatic art delivers impact through close analysis of the movements behind physical expression, mastery of the tensions caused between different parts of the body, and the inner energy generated. The Chronic Life takes place in Europe in 2031, after the Third Civil War. Groups and individuals converge, challenging each other over their diverging dreams, disappointments and hopes. A boy from Latin America arrives in search of his father, and people escort him from door to door… The 82-year-old director and actors will talk to the spectators after the first performance.

Harmonious way to connect across cultures
Chamber music was created for intimate settings, providing audiences with a refreshingly close encounter with performers and the works they play. Now, you can revisit the experience in a novel concert, where local rising stars interpret 19th and 20th-century masterpieces from five Nordic composers in a specially prepared home-like setting.

Selected movements from
Sibelius (Finland): String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56, “Voces Intimae” (Intimate Voices)
Leifs (Iceland): String Quartet, Op. 64, No. 3, “El Greco” (The Greek)
Nielsen (Denmark): 5 Piano Pieces, Op. 3 / 3 Piano Pieces, Op. 59
Grieg (Norway): Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36
Stenhammar (Sweden): Piano Sonata in A flat, Op. 12

Harmonious way to connect across cultures
Chamber music was created for intimate settings, providing audiences with a refreshingly close encounter with performers and the works they play. Now, you can revisit the experience in a novel concert, where local rising stars interpret 19th and 20th-century masterpieces from five Nordic composers in a specially prepared home-like setting.

Selected movements from
Sibelius (Finland): String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56, “Voces Intimae” (Intimate Voices)
Leifs (Iceland): String Quartet, Op. 64, No. 3, “El Greco” (The Greek)
Nielsen (Denmark): Violin Sonata No. 1 in A, Op. 9
Grieg (Norway): Cello Sonata in A minor, Op. 36
Stenhammar (Sweden): Piano Sonata in A flat, Op. 12