The Basement – a Living Tribute to Forgotten Women’s Stories

As we release our early bird festival passes today — with a 30% discount available from 1:00 PM — we can also lift the veil on one of next year’s major festival experiences: The Basement by Jo Strømgren, one of Norway’s most acclaimed choreographers.

The performance draws us down into the darkness — both physically and historically — and introduces us to four women who don’t quite belong in our world, yet aren’t willing to disappear from it either.

The Basement by Jo Strømgren. Photo: Jubal Battisti

The Basement opens as a kind of delirious tribute to the millions of women throughout history who were condemned to early death and oblivion, with no “crime” other than being women. Strømgren allows these figures to step forward again into a space where dream, nightmare, and reincarnation bleed into one another. If we awaken from death as someone else – who do we become? And who are we allowed to be?

While the men continue their celebration on the floor above, the four women try to orient themselves within their new realities. Or rather, their many realities. Here, a world emerges that is both morbid and beautiful, confusing and deeply human, where body, narrative, and identity merge in Strømgren’s distinctive artistic language.

The performance is an independent follow-up to The Loft (2022), which explored love between women. In The Basement, the love is directed toward those long dead and forgotten, yet whose stories refuse to let go. The knowledge of their suffering grants them a kind of eternal life – while reminding us of how patriarchal the world still is.

Once again, Strømgren brings love between women to the forefront as an underrepresented theme in Norwegian performing arts. Even if the subject may no longer feel radical here at home, it remains essential to make it visible – both for society at large and for the individuals who see themselves reflected on stage.

See the performance trailer here:

The Basement will be performed at the In2IT International Dance Festival in Kristiansund on March 8, at Normoria.

Credits:

Choreography, Scenography Design: Jo Strømgren

Dancers: Henriette Hamli, Nora Svendgaard, Anna Benedicte Andresen, Malika Berney / Angela Dematté

Composer: Bergmund Waal Skaslien

Costume Design: Bregje van Balen

Lighting Design: Jan Harald Ovrum

Co-producer: The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet

Photography: Jubal Battisti

Supported by: The Ministry of Culture and Equality