Søstre* (Sisters)

Søstre* (Sisters) by Haugen Produksjoner is a dance production about sisters and close family relations.  The sisters Anne Katrine Haugen and Liv Hanne Haugen use humour and self-depreciation through dance, music and video to show how a sense of belonging together, rivalling and love are inevitable linked in close family relations.

The two dancers’ mother has seven sisters. In a video documentary screened during the production the mother and her sisters tell their story and about the mutual bonds they share, but also how it is to be a woman, elder woman, widow, mother, religious or not. Onstage the two dancers act out their own experiences of their sister relationship as children and adults. And what happens when one of the sisters becomes pregnant?

The dance represents various phases and situations, from the claustrophobic braiding together of the sisters' hair to the emancipation and the experience as an individual, cause and effect through which the experience of bonds and belonging together is strengthened. Ties and a sense of belonging are strengthened. The subjective understanding of their mutual history is expressed through a double dance in which each sister dances her version of the same situations. The dance plays out in the intersection between the surreal and the clear and concrete.

The dance and the documentary video complete each other, in an attempt at contributing depth and complexity to the themes in the performance.

The music is composed especially for the production by Roger Ludvigsen. The sound image consists of voices, city atmosphere, nature sounds etc. Trombonist Øystein Blix performs live and adds a personal, present character to the music.

Søstre had its premiere June 24 in The Arts Festival of North Norway. It was bought by several counties within the system of The Cultural Rucksack and by The Norwegian Touring Theatre, sending it on tour.

Søstre was supported by Arts Council Norway (independent performing arts), The Audio Visual Fund, The Fund for Performing Artists, the municipality of Tromsø, the county of Finnmark, Arts Council Norway (choreography development support), The Northern Norwegian Arts Council, The Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority and The Cultural Rucksack.

Source: E-mail from Haugen Produksjoner, 5.1.2011

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning.

"Entangled, practically, the two women start their dance. Painful, but close and supporting, they whirl through the black landscape onstage. Eventually the braids are broken, and the girls arrange their own hair, before the performance proceeds. (...) Through the movements the two sisters show how they manipulate and fight. As opposed to the two aunts, who claim never to have had serious disagreements. That it at a level will never stop, one sees when the two bicker onstage, making fun of each other. Everything, naturally, with a stroke of love."

Lars Richard Olsen, Finnmark Dagblad 25/6 2003.

"Humour, lots of warm humour and a glint in the eye about the sibling relationship. (…) Here are bucketfuls of self-depreciation and ability to laugh at oneself."

Nordlys, June 25 2003

"Unease, unruliness, jealousy and hindrance, but also humour and joy. The reaction patterns we could recognise without further ado."

Harstad Tidende, March 10 2003

"With confident technique, great sensibility and not least a ginormous surplus of humour and self-depreciation these two sisters will be dance stage audience winners for sure."

Dagbladet, 12. oktober 2005

"Splendid sisters (...) It’s proof of the injustice of the world that the sisters Liv Hanne and Anne Katrine Haugen aren’t known all over the country for their dance. Perhaps can the tour with The Norwegian Touring Theatre help it? The dance is temperamental and emotional, intense, angry and happy, and it expresses everything the sister and sibling relationship has room for. Jealousy, battle for power and rage, worship, joy of being together and confidence. Despite the improvisational character musically and choreographically, the production is tight and without dead spots."

Vårt Land, October 12 2005