Sweet Spot unfolds as a state of constant transformation, a collective body emerging, syncopating, leaking and dissolving. Taking the Norwegian term leikarring (play ring/folk circle dance) as a point of departure, a contorted chain dance spirals into a never ending whirlwind. Channeling the vagabond, the red shoes that never stop dancing and the legends of the fiddler that cannot stop playing, softly unhinged bodies slip between abandon and care, between eruption and suspension.
Drawing from the medieval image of the hellmouth, the threshold of life and death, and an inbetween place where conflicting moods arise, the performance expands into a restless terrain where bodies contort, dilate and joyfully collapse together with reappearing songs and screeches.
Moving beyond treating folk as a static idea and fixed cultural identity, the work inhabits traditional music through distortion. Here, Nordic folklore is bent, stretched, and disoriented and folk becomes a site of negotiation of bodies and reimagination. A tender and alluring current where dances and fleeting fictions surface and submerge.
“This creation immerses the audience in a new dimension of strangeness, at once dreamlike and deeply embodied.” - Marie-Pierre Genecand - Le Temps, Lausanne, 09.03.26,
“Over the course of its duration,... Sweet Spot conjugates agony and ecstasy, reuniting heaven and hell.” - Zachary Whittenburg, C-print , Stockholm 15.02.26
Sweet Spot is the last part of a trilogy of works which includes the solo piece Batty Bwoy (2022) playing with the fictions surrounding the queer body and the group work Undersang (2024) that takes shape as a collective ritual in the forest. Together, these works plunge into how the body can be a site of ambivalence. Where identity and power are constantly negotiated and mutating, unraveling a porous and unstable surface opening up for rituals, new ways of togetherness and uncanny play.
Beharie’s practice and choreographies often emerge in the tension between the everyday and the extreme, the banal and the sacred, playing with transformation as a continuous principle, for both the body and the spaces they move through. At the core lies a desire to challenge how we sense reality. Their works explore how queerness and the body can act as a medium and a site for revolt and dissolution.
For this work, they expand their continuous collaboration and research with visual artist Karoline Bakken Lund. Working together since 2017, they examine the poetic and physical possibilities of collapse, where objects, textures and bodies drift between support and obstruction, cultivating porous visual and social landscapes. In Sweet Spot they also collaborate for the first time with light designer Ingeborg Staxerud Olerud and composer and musician Ingvild Langgård.
*Leikarring - A leikarring is a traditional Norwegian chain dance where participants hold hands and move together in simple, rhythmic patterns, often accompanied by folk song or fiddle music.
*Hardanger fiddle - The Hardanger fiddle is a traditional Norwegian fiddle with extra resonating strings.
DATES:
Dansens Hus, Oslo January 23 - 25, 2026
Side Step Festival - Zodiak, Helsinki (FI) 30 - 31. January 2026
RAS, Sandnes (NO) 05. February 2026
MDT, Stockholm(SE) 14 - 15. February 2026
BIT-Teatergarasjen , Bergen(NO) 27 - 28 . February 2026
Arsenic, Lausanne (CH) 4 - 6. March 2026
SPRING festival, Utrecht (NL) 16 - 17 May 2025
Rosendal Teater, Trondheim , (NO) 27 - 28 . May 2026
Theaterformen, Braunsweg (site specific version) (DE) - 27 - 28. June 2026
Festival Actoral 09 - 10. October 2026
Concept & Choreography
Harald Beharie
Close collaborator/artistic research
Karoline Bakken Lund
Performers
Loan Ha, Carlisle Sienes, Harald Beharie, Amie Mbye, Irene Theisen and Ester Thunander
Set-design/sculpture & Costume
Karoline Bakken Lund
Light design
Ingeborg Staxrud Olerud
Music supervisor
Ingvild Langgård
Musician
Ester Thunander
Music by:
Ester Thunander, Ingvild Langgård, Carlisle Sienes and traditional Norwegian music.
Sound design
Gunnar Innvær
Faciliatator/ Dramaturg
Deise Faria Nunes
Intimacy Coordinator
Lexie Koren
Producer
Kristina Melbø Valvik
Distribution/touring
Damien Valette
Choreography assistant/outer eye
Martin Lervik/ Hooman Sharifi
Co-producers Dansens Hus, Oslo, Rosendal Teater (Trondheim) , RAS (Sandnes),
BIT Bergen Internasjonale Teater (Bergen), Arsenic, Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), SPRING festival (Utrecht), Zodiak - Centre for New Dance, Helsinki (Helsinki), MDT (Stockholm)
Residency support
Fabbrica Europa (Firenze), Kaserne(Basel) and Kilden (Kristiansand)
Supported by
Norwegian Art Council and Kristiansand Municipality
Touring technicians
Tor Erik Høydahl Eriksson, Maja Sundt and Sander Sædberg
Thanks to
Hanna Siwaly, Sven Bartolomeo,Santos Cronstrøm, Marielle Sundt-Haugen, Annikken Wilhelmsen, Tore Lund, Hooman Sharifi og Torbjørn Kolbeinsen.
Norwegian Traditional Music (slåtter)
Håvards sorg after Håvard Gibøen, after Knut Buen Tussebrureferdi på Vossevangen, after Anne Hytta, after Knut Buen
Soteroen after Vidar Lande
Dolkaren after Johanne Flottorp (after Salve Austenå) Sammetsgrunden by Ester Thunander
Springar på nedstilt after Håvard Gibøen, after Knut Buen
Photo
Julie Hrncirova & Bart Grietens