NAVY BLUE

–  A very cruel piece, says the award-winning choreographer Oona Doherty about her first large-scale work ever.

NAVY BLUE is now coming to the CODA festival 2023.

She was kicked out of conservatoire during her hard-partying years. Now Doherty has gone on to become one of the most exciting choreographers of her generation.

It is the working class that Doherty portrays in her works. Loneliness, exploitation, pain and the endless struggle for justice are among the themes that occur in her distinctive choreography.

Doherty places as much importance on the music as the choreography in her artistic work. In NAVY BLUE, she has collaborated with the renowned DJ and musician Jamie XX, who has given the choreography a deeply disturbing expression.

A dark night descends over the twelve dancers on stage; they are trapped in a destructive algorithm. A paralyzing fear gradually comes over them. The future seems unmanageable, man insignificant.

Choreographer Doherty and her dancers search for a common healing and redemption. Where have we been, and where are we now heading towards?

Oona Doherty’s artistry largely appeals to social change:

Is there any hope in this seemingly bottomless darkness?

NAVY BLUE has already won critical acclaim across large parts of Europe and the UK. “A brilliant piece” claimed one critic after the world premiere in London. “An unmissable world piece,” claimed another.

One thing is certain: NAVY BLUE will not go unnoticed when it gets its Norwegian premiere during this year’s CODA festival.

Get ready for the most terrifying work of the year.

Read an interview with Oona Doherty in The Guardian.

Note! This performance contains sensitive content that may be offensive or triggering.

We would like to inform you that strobe lights are used in the performance.

About Oona Doherty:

Doherty’s solo work Hope Hunt and the Ascension into Lazarus (2015) won the “Best Performer Award” at the Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival and the “Total Theater Dance Award” at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. Oona Doherty was named one of the 10 best Irish artists of 2017 by The Irish Times, and her first work created for a larger group, Hard To Be Soft – A Belfast Prayer (2017) was named the No.1 UK dance show of 2019 by The Guardian. She was awarded the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2021.

She is also one of the Scaling Up artists of the Big Pulse Dance Alliance.

Navy Blue is a Big Pulse Dance Alliance co-production, co-produced by Dance Umbrella (UK), Dublin Dance Festival (Ireland), Torinodanza Festival (Italy), and Julidans (Netherlands), co-financed by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. A co-production of Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Sadler’s Wells (London), La Biennale di Venezia, Théâtre National de Chaillot (Paris), Dance Umbrella Festival (London), Maison de la Danse (Lyon), Belfast International Arts Festival, Dublin Dance Festival, Torino Danza, Julidans Festival (Amsterdam), MC2 (Grenoble) PARTNER Pavillon Noir (Aix en Provence), KLAP (Marseille).
Supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and DRAC Ile de France.