Tok Pisin
In Tok Pisin (2003) by Jo Strømgren Kompani four characters enter a journey to pursue the last white spot still left on the map - Papua New Guinea. The trip becomes increasingly delusive.
Their search for exoticism is revealed more and more as a substitute for their own lack of identity. The hollow anticlimax is a fact even long before arrival. Not a happy end, actually.
Information
(Objekt ID 1871)| Object type | Production |
| Premiere | July 1, 2003 |
| Produced by | Jo Strømgren Kompani |
| Coproducers | Lithuanian Dance Information Centre, The National Theatre, Dansens Hus - Stockholm, Danse à Aix, O Espaço do Tempo |
| Audience | Adults |
| Keywords | Contemporary dance |
| Running period | July 1, 2003 |
| Duration | 60 minutes |
| Website | Jo Strømgren Kompani |
Requirements to venue
| Blackout | No |
"Tok Pisin" as a term is an official language on Papua New Guinea, more known as Pidgin English. It has evolved in strange ways, mixing elements from English, German, Portuguese, and some of the 720 totally different languages spoken on the island. The evolution has forced itself through without interference from academic guidelines or linguistic methods. Grammar and vocabulary has been formed through verbal and analphabetic practice, and therefore Tok Pisin is quite different from other pidgin languages like for instance the grammatically complex Afrikaans in South Africa.
One ambition of Tok Pisin by Jo Strømgren Kompani was to develop choreography similar to the way "Tok Pisin" developed as a language. Which meant to let movement influences evolve in autodidact ways and neglecting any acedemic analysis of the material presented.
Touring: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, France, Portugal, Burkina Faso, Cuba
Tok Pisin by Jo Strømgren Kompani will not be performed again.
Source:
Jo Strømgren Kompani, jskompani.no, 08.08.2010, http://jskompani.no/productions/9
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Jo Strømgren | – Concept/Idea |
| Yasmine Hugonnet | – Choreography |
| Maxime Lannarelli | – Choreography |
| Jo Strømgren | – Choreography |
| Line Tørmoen | – Choreography |
| Jørgen Knudsen | – Music |
| Jo Strømgren | – Stage design |
| Jo Strømgren | – Costume |
| Lars Årdal | – Sound design |
| Stephen Rolfe | – Lighting design |
| Yasmine Hugonnet | – Dancer |
| Maxime Lannarelli | – Dancer |
| Jo Strømgren | – Dancer |
| Line Tørmoen | – Dancer |
| Ken Ruben Theodorsen | – Sound technician |
| September 29, 2003 – Malersalen, Nationaltheatret, The National Theatre (CODA) | National premiere, Norway |
| July 1, 2003 – CITO | Worldwide premiere |
| CODA | September 29, 2003 |
Writer and date unknown, Svenska Dagbladet [Sverige]:
"Jo Strømgren is the Thor Heyerdahl of dance. Just like an explorer he throws himself uninhibitedly between various mental landscapes, curiously investigating humanity's loss of direction and its need to create contexts."