SPELL
Neither Nor, in collaboration with choreographer Julia Maria Koch.
Through movement, sound, scenography and text, "SPELL" explores the role the body plays in confronting the unknown. What do we do in order to classify things, to make them tangible, to translate them from a world of abstract ideas into a material one? In ritual acts we seek access to the subconscious through physical practices such as singing, dancing, speaking and breathing. Culturally, there are many differences in how we create, tell, and retell our histories, but storytelling itself is universal. We describe our institutions to understand them and give them a body. Because only what has a body, what can be described, can have a story and exist.
"There are many stories, and the universe lives them all."
- Stephen Hawking.
At the heart of this project is a desire to research how our bodies store coded, storied information, be it in our brains, muscles, or how we move or interact—and how this information can be explored and developed through physical and vocal practices. How do we deal with the liminal or imperceptible structures that define how we experience the world? What role does the body play in confronting the unknown? What do we do in order to be able to classify things, to make them tangible—to translate them from a world of abstract ideas into a material one?
The stories we tell one another are a way of making the world tangible and known to us. They are acts of creation—the sealing of a social contract that defines how we live together now and in the future. They are a way of dealing with the impossibility of the universe.
So what does the body do with these stories?
Stories and histories settle in our genes and in regions of our brains – collective traumas and ‘old knowledge’ are genetically anchored and physically present in our brain cells. The body not only carries information within it, it also releases it. Communicates it.
In ritual acts—spiritual and religious—but also in the scientific-psychological field, we seek access to the subconscious, through physical practices such as singing, dancing, speaking and breathing. Culturally, there are many significant differences in how we create, tell and retell our histories, but storytelling itself is universal. We describe our institutions to understand them and give them a body. Because only what has a body, what can be described, can have a story and exist.
SPELL will be presented at Cornerteateret, Bergen, on February 13, 14 and 15, 2026.
Photo: Ragnhild Storsletten Åse
With:
Julia Maria Koch (choreography, co-direction), Alwynne Pritchard (text, performance, movement direction, co-direction), Erik Iñaki Odriozola Soraluce (dance/performance/creation/choreography), Alberto Chianello (dance/performance/creation/choreography, Nadine Nasr (dance/performance/creation/choreography), Eslam Saad (text, performance), Øystein Nesheim (scenography), Thorolf Thuestad (music/sound), Torsten Lippstock (lights), Berta Reig and Aistė Žumbakyte (production), Ragnhild Storsletten Åse (social media)
Volunteer participants: Cathrine H. Skjeret, Janne Nordstrønen, Lena Josefine Alme Loftås, Marita Sala and Marta Jacob.
Supported with funds from Arts Council Norway, Fond for Lyd og Bilde, Goethe-Institut and Bergen Internasjonale Teater. With additional support from Proscen.
With special thanks to Jan Holden and Pål Terje Nygård.
A co-production with the Goethe-Institut (International Coproduction Fund). Co-produced by WRAP.