Gisela & Orlando..

Sissel M. Bjørkli and Erlend Samnøen have in Gisela and Orlando’s fantastic account of the Beautiful Helena taken on the concept of beauty.

Gisela and Orlando weave back and forth between the pompous and the banal, the beautiful and the grotesque. Inspired by the Greek myth about the Beautiful Helena, they are located in an abstract landscape where in their attempts to demonstrate beauty they experience perfection’s unattainability.

The production has a dance-theatre form composed of contemporary dance inspired by Baroque period dance, combined with dialogue inspired by Euripides’ “Helena”, poems by Edgar Allen Poe and arias by Händel.

Erlend Samnøen completed his dance studies at the Norwegian National Academy of Ballet in 2002. He has worked as a dancer at Det Norske Teatret and Teater Ibsen, and with choreographers such as Henriette Pedersen, Sølvi Edvardsen and Per Roar. He has worked as a choreographer at the Norwegian National Theatre, Det Norske Teatret, Trøndelag Teater, Den Nationale Scene and Hålogaland Teater, as well as creating own productions, which include the piece “Stilleben med fiken, sitron osv, osv” (“Still life with fig, lemon, etc. etc.”) presented at Det Norske Teatret in 2007 and as a part of the artist group L.U.N. with the production “Interior of a rural home”, presented at Dance House Norway, Åmot Farm and Villa Møllebakken.

Sissel M. Bjørkli studied at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts from 1996-1999, and has worked as a performing dance artist and choreographer since 1998. During this time she has worked for and collaborated with a range of choreographers in Norway and throughout Europe, currently with Erna Omarsdottir (Iceland). Since 2003 Sissel M. Bjørkli and Erlend Samnøen have collaborated in the performance group L.U.N.