Marianne Skjeldal (b. 1979) is a dancer, choreographer and performance artist. She holds an MFA degree from DOCH, Stockholm University of the Arts with specialisation in Choreography and Performance Practices, and a two-year degree from School of New Dance, now Høyskolen for Dansekunst/HFDK.
Through various formats, Marianne is creating her own work at the intersection of choreography and performance through relational work, examining place, different forms of presence, listening and ways of being intimate, as well as methods for transformation and possible transcendence. Her works are most often linked to a specific site, to nature, objects and materials, combining movement with sound, text and voice where the relational approach to the audience is always addressed. Her research is rooted in a listening practice based on resonance and giving time - to be affected, sense, reflect, respond and by doing so - allowing relations to unfold. This also includes relations to a more-than-human world. She is also part of various collaborative work as a dancer, choreographer, performer, mentor and curator. Educated as a certified massage therapist and yoga teacher, the somatic, spiritual and inter-relational aspects of these practices inspire and feed her artistic practice - and vice versa.
Together with artist colleague Inger-Reidun Olsen, she runs the collaboration LATERNA. LATERNA received a 3-year funding May 2018 for the project CoSA- Concerning the Spiritual in Art (2018-2020), which due to the pandemics and additional funding was prolonged throughout 2022. LATERNA´s work is touching borderlands of dance, choreography, ritual and healing, the artworks are relational, make places accessible and open space for dialogue and transformation.
Since 2017 LATERNA has been tracing history, gathering collectives, made several site-specific performances, a choreographic growing of sister gardens in two countries (NO/RU) and met with prominent city trees in Oslo every season throughout the project period and made performative responses in collaboration with each tree – Tree Talks. Within the CoSA project LATERNA has created new ways of shaping temporary collectives in historical places like Monte Verità, Ascona (CH), Steilneset Memorial, Vardø (NO), the Museum of St. Petersburg Avantgarde, St. Petersburg (RU) and at Black Box teater in Oslo, where LATERNA were associated artists from 2019-2021, and created a 5-day festival in June 2022. www.laternalaterna.org
Besides creating her own work, Marianne makes a point of continuing to develop projects with other artists, both as a collaborator and a performer. She is currently involved in collaborations with amongst others: Landing, Robert Steijn, Fiksdal/Langgård/Becker, Liv Kristin Holmberg, Keith Hennessy, Julia Adzuki, Sally Dean and Nina Ossavy/CAN. She has presented work touring in Scandinavia, Finland, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, The United States, Chile, Brazil, Ethiopia, and the Middle East. In 2011 she was awarded Norwegian Government Grant for Emerging Artists and in 2018 another 3-year Government Grant for Artists.
See CV attached -->