Jo Strømgren

Jo Strømgren was born in Trondheim, Norway, 1970. He fulfilled the cliché of a Norwegian childhood with close relationship to wild nature, indoctrination of social democracy values, and traumatisation from violent troll fairytales. Apart from a traditional background, he was also forced to spend many years in tropical areas due to the occupation of his parents. This early mix of local identity and globetrotter confusion has been relevant in his professional work, in themes, variation of genres, and perhaps especially in the particular interest in different languages.

After graduating upper secondary school, Jo Strømgren was drawn between two alternative studies - chemical engineering at a polytechnic college and Russian language with the Norwegian military. A stray application to The National Academy of Ballet in Oslo was however accepted. So he made an impulsive choice.

Due to scepticism towards academic methods and extreme absence from school, Jo Strømgren never managed to graduate neither in classical ballet nor choreography. He nevertheless initiated a fruitful career as a dancer which later led him to choreography and theatre direction. Literary ambitions evolved and were soon to become a steady career also in playwriting. Although these three art forms are now defined as his main occupations, Jo Strømgren has also been developing a particular style in set design and lighting design.

His involvement in film-making, in front of and behind the camera, is also worth a mention. The multi-disciplinary character of his work is however to be seen as nothing more than a natural interest in the overall process of storytelling, according to Strømgren himself.

As an artistic director of Jo Strømgren Kompani, founded 1998, he has developed a significant personal style with a mix of theatre, dance, puppets, film, and live music – wrapped in a nonsensical language frame.

As a choreographer Jo Strømgren has accepted commissions from a wide range of companies – from classical to contemporary. As a theatre director Jo Strømgren has mostly been working with national and municipal theatres in Scandinavia. As a playwright he has written a long list of plays for theatre and scripts for film. He is a member of Writers' Guild of Norway.

There by Jo Strømgren Kompani won The Hedda Award 2002 in best production category, whereas Gorri-Gorri by The Norwegian Touring Theatre/Jo Strømgren Kompani was nominated for The Hedda Award 2001 in best production category.

Jo Strømgren won The Hedda Award 1999 in the open category for the choreographies for Bindingsverkfor Carte Blanche and Ten Years Later for Jo Strømgren Kompani.

Jo Strømgren also choreographed Peer Pressure for Black Box Teater and The Norwegian Touring Theatre in 1997. The production was nominated for The Hedda Award 1998 in production of the year category.

Sources:

The webpage of Jo Strømgren, 19.07.2010: http://jostromgren.com/eng/pages/29-about

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 2002, www.sceneweb.no, 06.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/23900/The_Hedda_Award_2002-2002

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 2001, www.sceneweb.no, 08.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/23910/Heddaprisen_2001-2001

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 1999, www.sceneweb.no, 14.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/11521/The_Hedda_Award_1999-1999

Sceneweb on The Hedda Award 1998, www.sceneweb.no, 16.11.2012, http://www.sceneweb.no/en/awarding/23943/The_Hedda_Award_1998-1998

• Jo Strømgren - Artistic director
• Jo Strømgren Kompani - Artistic director (from 1998 to )

• Anders Jahres kulturpris 2023 - Anders Jahres kulturpris 2023
• Telenors kulturpris 2015 - Telenors kulturpris
• Trondheim kommunes Kulturpris 2009 - Trondheim kommunes Kulturpris 2009
• Bergen kommunes kunstnerpris 2000 - Bergen kommunes kunstnerpris
• Den bayeriske teaterpris 2000 - Den bayeriske teaterpris
• Oslo bys kunstnerpris 1999 - Oslo bys kunstnerpris
• Heddaprisene 1999 - Åpen klasse
• The Hedda Award 1999 - Open category

• The Hedda Award 1999 - Open category

• Telenors kulturpris 2018 - Telenors kulturpris