Dance artists Ingvild Marstein Olsen, Vera Ilona Stierli and Olivia Edginton together with musician Guoste Tamulynaite work with Trondheim's vein, the Nidelva. The performance takes the audience closer to the river as the performers give the Nidelva human qualities and emphasise its character. They move in relation and in dialogue with the river's contours, sounds, rhythms, and movements, and give the river voice through soundscape and emphasise its traits with dance and costume.

Rivers are one of the most important systems on earth, they are the water's transport arteries and provide fresh drinking water, and maintain the planet's biological diversity. River Being wants to gather the general public around rivers in their local area, and provide an opportunity to strengthen, discover or restore a relationship to these bodies of water. The performance highlights that the river is not fixed, but a system in perpetual motion and change.

The practitioners create a visual and auditory presence that invites the people of Trondheim to stop, take in the surroundings and meet the Nidelva. During the two-hour performance, the audience is invited to observe River Being for as long as they wish, stay or return to the performance, while the work slowly migrates down/up stream of the river.

Ingvild Marstein Olsen is a Norwegian dance artist, a performer and choreographer. Recently based in Oslo Ingvild works in Norway and also across the European dance scene. Ingvild has created the work Økohelter with the collective STICKY, a performance about the forest ecosystems. She has also created SMACK (co-choreographed Stierli, Edginton), and solo work In Series and En som lytter. Alongside Ingvild has worked with Panta Rei Danseteater in the multiple roles of performer, choreographer, and coordinator. She has performed in works, both outdoors, in galleries and on stage for choreographers such as; Katrine Kirsebom, Rahel Vonmoos and Alison Curtis-Jones. Ingvild graduated from Laban with a MA in Dance Performance and BA in Contemporary Dance.

Vera Ilona Stierli is a dance artist from Switzerland. She has studied at Palucca Hochschule für Tanz Dresden (BA) and with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (apprenticeship), and furthermore at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London (MA). Vera works internationally with project-based dance companies, which include: Quizzical Körper in Germany and Cie Sabine Hausherr in Switzerland. Since 2016 she creates own collaborative work combining dance, performance, improvisation and somatic work.

Liv Edginton is a dance artist — performer and choreographer working between London and Oslo. Liv is dedicated to the practice of performance and this work has taken her to international stages in both independent and dance company environments. Notably with Candoco Dance Company since 2017, Liv performs the work of makers: Jeanine Durning, Yasmeen Godder, Trisha Brown Company; and previously Jerome Bel, Eun Me Ahn, and Jo Bannon. Liv choreographs and collaborates in other contexts with artists in Norway, Switzerland, and the UK, she has shared her solo work at London’s ICA, Siobhan Davies Dance, and Gallery 223. Liv studied Contemporary Dance (BA) at Laban 2012-2015, and has an MA in Dance Performance from Laban 2015-2016.

Guoste Tamulynaite is an Oslo-based pianist and composer, educated at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She has a bachelor's degree in classical piano, and in the summer of 2016 completed a project-based master's degree devoted to improvisation, composition and exploration of alternative playing techniques. Guoste has composed and performed music for a number of music, theatre and dance productions, which have toured in both Norway and Europe. The projects include Flakkande Røynd (choreography by Rannei Grenne and Solveig Styve Holte, music by Anja Lauvdal and Heida Johannesdottir) and STATE (choreography by Ingri Fiksdal, music by Lasse Marhaug).