Ingun Bjørnsgaard

In 1992, Ingun Bjørnsgaard started her own dance company, Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt, or IBP for short. While developing her art as a choreographer with IBP, Bjørnsgaard also works as guest choreographer with companies such as Kungliga National Baletten in Stockholm, Skånes Dansteater in Malmö, Carte Blanche in Bergen and Nationalteatret in Oslo and lately with The National Ballet at the opening of Oslos new opera house, April 2009. Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt’s characteristic style has evolved step by step in collaboration with the dancers engaged in the company.

Following the establishment of IBP, Ingun Bjørnsgaard rapidly distinguished herself as a true innovator in the world of Scandinavian dance. Her productions soon won several international prizes, which drew attention to her work in many European countries.

A salient characteristic of Ingun Bjørnsgaard’s choreographic style is an articulated interaction between classic and modern dance. Her play with genres allows an analytical dimension to emerge – a free framework, in which the scenic identities of the dancers hover between given characters and those of unveiled private lives.

In many of her works, mythical female characters are presented. These characters are liberated from their original stories and are thus given the opportunity to elaborate their own personal complexity. At times, the choreography seems to convey a narrative, but the dramatic situations are constantly interrupted by choreographic passages or by a dancer stepping out of character and catching sight of something outside the given, fictive situation.

Bjørnsgaard’s dance pieces cannot be called purely abstract. Neither can they be described as narrative. Rather, they may be regarded as scenic rooms, situated beyond a normal, causal time frame. The response on her performances in Norway and abroad has been that Bjørnsgaard’s choreographies are both very skilled and highly innovatory.

In April 2008 Ingun Bjørnsgaard was invited to choreograph for The National Opera & Ballet for the opening of the new Opera House in Oslo. Furthermore Ingun Bjørnsgaard has choreographed for Northwest Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg and Tanztheater Bremen, 18 dancers will be doing 20 performances in Oldenburg and Bremen from February 28 2009. Ingun Bjørnsgaard Prosjekt will premiere a new production, “Poppea” May 2009 at Dansens Hus Norway.