Three women celebrate a strange underground party. Exuberant joy mixes with a hint of decay, and slowly the northern lights penetrate the darkness. Rocks along the coast, a brewing storm – in a barren Norwegian landscape, the three creatures crawl to the earth’s surface and frighteningly bare their teeth.

The dance piece »Jordjenta« (»Soil girl«) was inspired by the poem of the same name by the Norwegian playwright Maria Tryti Vennerød. A young man is in search of something earthy or eternal, and finally finds it in the form of the soil girl. The choreography follows the original in its delight in the hidden and cryptic. It takes humorous pot shots at gender clichés and makes a caricature of femininity by daring to be ugly and demonstrating excessive joie de vivre.

The two youngs artists Ingeleiv Berstad and Kristin Helgebostad studied choreography at the Kunsthøgskolen (National Academy of Arts) in Oslo, where they graduated in 2012. Ida Wigdel danced for the Norwegian companies Ingun Bjørnsgaard and Zero Visibility corps. »Jordjenta« is their first common work and has already been invited to Berlin and Vienna.

Maria Tryti Vennerød, born in 1978, is one of Norway’s most famous playwrights. Her pieces have been translated into more than ten languages. Jan-Christoph Gockel staged her drama »Vedkjenning« (»Confessions«) at the Schaubühne Berlin in 2011.