Fragile

At the website of the project the following, among other things, is written about Fragile by Kjersti Kramm Engebrigtsen, Ajjar Ausma and Ana Rita Barata:

"Fragile aims to exchange knowledge between dance and blind/visually impaired people, developing inclusion in the performing arts through international collaboration. Our objective is that choreographers, working alongside sighted and visually impaired dancers, will be able to find new 'dance languages' together, raising awareness of the importance of movement and the contributions of visually impaired people.

The project crosses art borders as well as country borders by including composers, costume, lighting designers and documentary filmmakers from different countries. The project also includes local visually impaired people, dance teachers and specialist educators in the field of visual impairment, within the process in order to anchor the project within the local populations in each country."

Kjersti Kramm Engebrigtsen won The Norwegian Critics' Award (dance) 2012/2013 for her contribution to Fragile.

Lars Elton of Norwegian Critics' Association said the following, among other things, when the award was given out at Litteraturhuset in Oslo in September 2013:

"Fragile is a project and a performance in which the blind and the visually impaired dance with the non-impaired. Kjersti Kramm Engebrigtsen initiated the project and made Touched, the first of three choreographies making up the full-length performance Fragile. With the choreographers Ana Rita Barata from Portugal, Ajjar Ausma from Estonia and Isabel Jones from England she got support from The European Union's cultural program to create a project for education in and development of dance methods for the blind and visually impaired. The collaboration, which started in 2011, resulted in a performance with works by the three formerly mentioned choreographers, opening in Lisbon this April.

Fragile has become a performance involving the spectator at different levels and through different expressions. Kjersti Kramm Engebrigtsen's Touched is characterised by a flowing process in which one can long be uncertain who of the six dancers have trouble seeing. It soon becomes clear that the visual impairment is a resource, opening for proximity and touch. With Touched she sets the tune for hushed performance. The project title refers to the vulnerability of the visually impaired («Fragile»), but the paradox is that being led and supported provides security and confidence. Through the touch intimacy and confidence find a beautiful expression. Also it ends with the visually impaired dancer conquering the room."

The complete speech (in Norwegian only) can be read at the webpage of Norwegian Critics' Association.

Fragile by Kjersti Kramm Engebrigtsen, Ajjar Ausma and Ana Rita Barata was supported by the EU commission, as well as funding bodies in the participating countries: Arts Council Norway, The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted, Nordic Culturepoint (Norway, in the case of the three mentioned), tbc (Portugal), Eesti Kultuurkapital (Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonia) and tbc (UK).

Sources:

Fragile, www.fragiledance.com, 14.11.2013, http://www.fragiledance.com/eng/page/about2/

Norwegian Critics' Association, www.kritikerlaget.no, 13.11.2013: http://www.kritikerlaget.no/nor/pages/854-dansekritikerprisen_20122013