Wakati - 6. mars

5.–7. mars

Wakati is a Swahili word for time. The performance Wakati explores how past, present and future affect the development of a culture and the life of a human. In Wakati, the performer explores her own cultural history and heritage through time. By using her own experience of immigrating to Norway from Kenya, Shelmith examines how facing the expectations, ideas and limits that come with being an immigrant and multicultural in Norway. The work sheds light on how identity changes and develops within the same culture and between different cultures. As well as how time, identity and culture are intertwined phenomenons; Through Wakati Øseth examines how to transform these explorations into
an artistic material.

Plays 5th to 7th of March at 19:30

Duration: Approximately 45 minutes.

Musician and composer: Stephan Meidell.
Choreography and dance: Shelmith Øseth
Dramaturgy: Vibeke Flesland Havre
Costume: Olga Regitze Dyrløv
Technician and Light designer: Jan Holden
Funded by: Bergen kommune , Fond for lyd og bilde, Kulturrådet, FFUK
Producer: syvmil
Photo Creds: Joshua Jacob Bobadilla

Co-produced and supported by:
Carte Blanche, BIT Teatergarasjen, Fargespill, Bergen Dansesenter.

Shelmith Øseth is a dancer based in Bergen and Oslo. Her movements are characterized by experience from contemporary dance, and various traditional African dance techniques such as «indlamu» and «pantsula» from South Africa, and mostly from «Isukuti» Dance that is derived from the Kenyan tribe «Luhya». She got her education at the dance line in Langhaugen high school and later at Skolan för Samtidsdans in Sweden. Over the last few years she has worked on several theater and dance projects at, among others, Den Nationale Scene in Bergen, Nordic Black Theater in Oslo, Bergen Kunsthall, Semper Eadem at The Norwegian Theatre and Pantareidanseteater.

Øseth has operated both independently and as part of companies such as Theater ZeBU and Nordic
Beasts in Denmark, aswell as Wiels in Brussels. The focus on social and political aspects with the pure expression of dance is what matters to her. And she is interested in words in the correlation. Her interests in vocabulary in correlation with movement are derived and inspired from her love and experience in physical theatre.

Stephan Meidell:
Guitarist Stephan Meidell is a synthesist – a musical adventurer who unites styles and idioms through improvisational gestures and refined design. His paradoxical music exists where genres dissolve into
fragments that can be picked apart and combined in new ways. Meidell engages with sounds from electronic, acoustic, and electromechanical instruments and machines and then recontextualizes them in new and surprising ways. He owes much to contemporary minimalist traditions, early electronic music explorations, 60s modal jazz, and experimental techno. He has released numerous albums and has written commissionsfor dance, theater, and audiovisual collaborations.