Fatigue, lethargy, apathy, restlessness, negligence, despair, or looseness: Dark forces that can strike us at any time. They are demanding and they shape our bodies, speed us up or slow us down. It is through the exploration of these dark forces in the human body that the Oslo-based choreographer Rosalind Goldberg has created Dark Dynamite, a strong and visually beautiful work where you meet one dancer among several sculptural bodies.

The performance was sold out when it premiered at the Henie Onstad Art Center in Bærum in 2022.

The artist herself writes: The body harbors a reserve of dynamite. Lurking under the skin, the destructive forces are existence itself, dissolving identity instead of solidifying it. The body’s capacity to undergo metamorphosis is part of our biology, and we celebrate its ability to change. Change is often seen as something positive, a progression, a step forward. But the capacity for progress comes at a price: it is often counterbalanced by a form of destruction. This does not contradict life - it makes life possible.

These forces are challenging and have the potential to undo us at any given moment. It is the side of life many wish to suppress. As an attempt to separate these dark forces from everyday life, they are pathologized and treated as medical diagnoses although this reserve of darkness is nothing less than life itself. The more the vulnerable sides of life are medicalized, the more our sense of normalcy shrinks in turn. By letting life's worn and unbridled sides unfold, the choreography points to the idea that parts of life are self-forming matters beyond control, and its dark forces are inevitable game players.

Artist talk after Friday's performance

About the artist:
Rosalind Goldberg is a choreographer based in Oslo, who is currently working on her PhD project on choreography as a meaning-generating aggregate. Dark Dynamite is part of this project. Goldberg explores processes of change through a physical and conceptual approach to choreography. What can we expect from the body? To what extent can the body change, which aspects of the body can we hide from?