Juv* (Canyon)

SOURCES:

Dansdesign, dansdesign.com, 19.10.2016, http://dansdesign.com/blog/Productions/Juv/indexa.html

Dansdesign: Koreografi ute (literally: Outdoors choreography), Teater & Eftf. AS, 2009

Helge Reistad's private archive, donated by Helge Reistad, 26.10.2016

Reistad, Helge: Dansdesign 1978-2011. 33 år i dansekritikernes søkelys. (literally: Dansdesign 1978-2011, 33 years in the spotlight of the dance critics), Teater & Eftf AS, Oslo 2011

Marit Strømmen, 11.08.2006, Aftenposten [Oslo]:
"An adventurous jump of a performance in close battle with a wild waterfall in Gudbrandsdalen. The meeting between dancers, climbers, acrobats, paddlers and musicians, in a canyon, changes the limits for what is possible in outdoors performing arts. [...] The dance is quickly established as the production's gravity field, performed at a 250 square meters' stage in the river, an arena intended for future dance as well. All the time, one's attention is challenged by acts on the water, ashore, in the mountain and, not least, in the air. The singer Øyonn Groven Myhren and a group of eminent musicians perform text from Ibsen's Peer Gynt, among other things, but mainly Juv* (Canyon) is based on local, traditional legends about Per. [...] The movements are large enough and abstract enough to be visible in the momentous nature, while being natural enough to contain fascinating, detailed insights into human struggle with forces within and outside one's self."

Helge Reistad, article about Juv. Danstidningen nr. 4 2006, the September issue:
"In some of Ibsen's plays, nature and natural forces have important meaning as symbols. In Dansdesign's production Juv (meaning canyon) nature in itself is transformed into a theatre stage, on which people risk their lives to show us some of the force of life in Ibsen's masterpiece. At one and the same time, it is dazzling how percussion instruments, song, saxophone and horns create a rhythmic pulse throughout the performance, while the lighting design transforms the mountain sides and the acting areas in such a way that the voluminous venue keeps changing its character while maintaining the special, intimate situations as well as the monumental dramatic and surprising moments."

Per Ivar Henriksbø, 09.08.2008, Gudbrandsdølen Dagningen:
"In the hour of midnight this Thursday I could observe that the production has made a leap since last year. It is not reconstructed. The framework, the form and the content (the action?) is the same. As with Peer Gynt by the Lake of Gålå, Juv goes the same path from one year to the next. Recognition is aimed for. [...] Juv challenges and teases our full range of senses. This is daring performing arts with its multi-expression, in which earth and mountain, fire and water melt together with sound and movements. The existential elements make up the foundation. Musically, the performance ranges from world music and traditional tunes to experimental jazz."