Undersang is a performance by Harald Beharie and takes shape as a collective excursion to the forest. A sculptural choir on floating sonic structures - singing beings, drenched in a shimmer of queer ecologies and extravagant gestures. Undersang is a dreamy fabulation encompassing ownership and belonging to “nature” - our shared landscape, and the cultural significance we attach to it.

Navigating through our imaginative cultural stories the work threads Afro and Asian-Nordic diasporic narratives with the politics of displacement. Beharie plays with the notion of dissonance as an ambiguous feeling of empowerment, sparking questions about what it means to belong and why belonging. In this novel ecosystem of connections, they introduce a non-linear perspective on time. Here, narratives from mythologies, folklore, historical national romantical ideals, and science fiction converge, giving rise to a multifaceted understanding of history, the future, and the present, all woven together with a touch of playful fiction.

Undersang is a tapestry of opulent configurations, surrendering to the exuberance of the landscape. Becoming living embodiments of the flamboyant, the tumultuous, and the sassy spirited. Hidden beneath the surface is a world of concealed enchantment and power. Here, time dissolves, traditions bend, and dichotomies of nature and society, civilized and uncivilized, synthetic and organic, are subject to profound scrutiny. A place challenging the concept of hierarchy among beings and ponder the very essence of what is considered natural.

In this place, the melodramatic grandeur and profound consequences of nature weave themselves into the very fibers of their being, spilling forth into an unpredictable, uninhibited, and entropic landscape. Where the terrain undergoes a continual process of dissolution and transformation, while being caressed by both gentle and fierce forces.

Falling into the shimmer where glamorous beings sing and vibrate in the night.

About the artist:
Harald Beharie (he/they) is a Norwegian-Jamaican performer and choreographer based in Oslo. While applying various formats and contexts, his practice looks into alternative modes of being, dancing, and existing together while questioning notions of normativity. Harald is interested in the unpolished, the DIY, and the vulnerability of being in the unknowing. His choreographic practice unfolds in various constellations, with other artists using dance as a medium for creating elusive spaces of ambivalence and fantasy, oscillating between deconstruction and construction, optimism and doubt, apathy, and affect. Some of the leading interests in his work at the moment are dissecting known physical narratives and opening for a conscious naivety and playfulness while indulging in the practice of the pathetic, collapsing, joyful, failing, and persistent body. Harald’s focus is being with local people, local ideas, and developing ideas with and within the community.

Harald’s work has received nominations for the Norwegian Critics Association prize for the performances Shine Utopians with Louis Schou (2020) and the solo work Batty Bwoy (2022). Batty Bwoy also won the Hedda prize for “best dance production” 2023.

Haralds work has been be presented in museums, galleries, festivals, and contexts including: Impulstanz, MDT, Stockholm, Santarcangelo Festival, Gessnerallee, Zurich, Donau Festival, SPRING Utrecht, Zodiak -Helsinki, Les Urbaines , Salmon Festival, Barcelona, Centrale Fies, Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Oktoberdans BIT-teatergarasjen, Bergen, Dansens Hus Oslo, Munch Museum, Oslo, Vigeland Museum, Oslo, RAS, Sandnes, Galleri Entrée, Bergen, Kunstnerforbundet, Oslo, Øyafestivalen, Oslo and Trondheim Kunstmuseum.