FRIKAR dance company (established May 2006 by Hallgrim Hansegård) is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

dance company for contemporary and traditional dance specializing in the connection between dance and nature.

History

FRIKAR dance company was founded by choreographer Hallgrim Hansegård in 2006, and has toured 29 countries all over the world. The company is described by National Geographic as "wildly inventive" and is composed by 32 artists from 4 continents (India, Iran, Somalia, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Sweden, Norway.) The artists from very diverse genres meet each other in the research of gravity and human nature. With a background in Norwegian traditional dance choreographer Hallgrim Hansegård founded FRIKAR dance company to give acrobatic dancers living in Norway a creative environment. Together with the dancers he has been developing a new choreographical style for contemporary dance called "Down2Earth" including

Hallingdans The Halling (''hallingdansen'') is a folk dance (''bygdedans'') traditionally performed in rural Norway, although versions of the halling can also be found in parts of Sweden. The dance is traditionally performed by young men at weddings and pa ...

Capoeira Capoeira () is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality. Born of the melting pot of enslaved Africans, Indigenous Brazilians and Portuguese influences at the beginning of the 16th century ...

and

break dance Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in t ...

. He works in the formats of aerial dance, site specific ecosophical stage arts, indoor dance and interdiciplinary arts. Hansegård made his international breakthrough with an animation film at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2003 (Tarantrance). In 2005 he won 3rd prize at Superdok. In 2007 he was awarded "Artist of the Year" at The Norwegian Folk Music Awards. In 2009 he won the "Award for best choreography" at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2009 The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Believe (Dima Bilan song), Believe" by Dima Bilan. Organised by the Euro ...

, among 43 countries in the most seen entertainment TV program in the world. In 2010 he premiered "Jamsiis" at Bergen International Festival. This was a highly personal contribution to the Nordic contemporary dance scene, based on his roots in traditional dances. Jamsiis opened up a public discussion about the boundaries of contemporary dance in Norway. NRK (the Norwegian Broadcasting) writes:

JAMSIIS, Hallgrim Hansegårds new production, is the most exciting I have seen here. It’s very exciting to see traditional dance in dialogue with contemporary dance. Hansegård is branching out and opening up new territory here. He has come down a path that I think is very important to go. That Hansegård is a dancer with strong will to do his own thing and blessedly uninhibited as far as exceeding boundaries is concerned is something the Norwegian dance community should be happy about… At the same time that he approaches contemporary dance, he opens doors. If he succeeds in making contemporary dance accessible to a wider audience than today’s, the genre of contemporary dance should learn to endure a ‘halling-roundkick’ or two.

In 2009 Hansegård directed TidarÅ, an outdoor full night dance performance under a waterfall with 22 dancers and musicians from FRIKAR dance company. The production collected contemporary and traditional dancers in a research for a unique contemporary dance technique. "Tidarå" is part of FRIKARs ecosophical productions. Hansegård directed also Yr in 2009 together with violin virtuoso Ragnhild Hemsing, premiere at the

Bergen International Festival Bergen International Festival ( no, Festspillene i Bergen) is an annual international music and cultural festival in Bergen, Norway. Biography The Bergen International festival is the largest festival in the Nordic countries in its genre and ha ...

. In 2008 FRIKAR was censored by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

for his non-conventional interpretation of Peer Gynt. In the years 2005 to 2007 Hansegård directed "Undergrunnsfargo", "Isolations", "Laus", "Kruk", "The snuff grinders" and "Bastard". He also participated in '' Dansefeber'', the Norwegian version of ''

So You Think You Can Dance ''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a franchise of reality television shows in which contestants compete in dance. The first series of the franchise, created by '' Idols'' producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, premiered in July 2005 and has ...

'', in 2006. In 2008, his dancing was digitalized for the

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

(MMORPG) Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Choreographies / productions

* "AP" (2010) * "JAMSIIS" (2010) * "Wall dance" (2010) * "TidarÅ" (2009) * "YR" (2009) * "Fairytale" (2009) * "Mjølk" (2009" * "Bukkerittet" (2008) * "THE SNUFF GRINDERS" (2007) * "KRUK!" (2007) * "Bastard" (2007) * "LAUS" (2006)

TV appearances

The whole company made it to the finals in Norway's Got Talent in 2008. Frikar performed with winner

Alexander Rybak Alexander Igorevich Rybak (russian: Александр Игоревич Рыбак) or Alyaxandr Iharavich Rybak ( be, Аляксандр Ігаравіч Рыбак; born 13 May 1986) is a Belarusian-Norwegian singer-composer, violinist, pian ...

at the

(ESC) performing "

Fairytale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cul ...

". The routine, based on traditional halling and choreographed by Hallgrim Hansegård, was awarded the Best Choreography of Eurovision 2009 by esctoday.com.Frikar Dance Company wins Best choreography award

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

Today. 27-12-2009. Retrieved 30-05-2010. In 2009 Frikar performed 150 times,FRIKAR dance company
Retrieved 30-05-2010. including its outdoor big scale production TidarÅ, concerts with the

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra The Oslo Philharmonic (Oslo-Filharmonien) is a Norwegian symphony orchestra based in Oslo, Norway. The orchestra traces its roots to the Philharmonic Society founded in 1847 and the Christiania Musical Association co-founded by Edvard Grieg in 187 ...

, the premiere "YR" at Bergen International Art Festival. They toured 20 European countries with live performances and TV shows.FRIKAR dance company - THE FAIRYTALE
. Retrieved 30-05-2010. FRIKAR was censored by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

on their 2008 Italy tour for an unromanticized interpretation of

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five- act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Ibsen believed ''Per Gynt'', the Norwegian fairy tale on wh ...

. Frikar also won the "Norway's got talent" competition in 2008.

References

External links

FRIKAR dance company website
* * * * * * *{{Cite news , last=Rütter , first=Fredrik , title=Eksotisk med FRIKAR , url= http://www.vg.no/rampelys/artikkel.php?artid=10005336 , work=VG , date= 5 May 2010 , access-date=5 May 2010
FRIKAR dance company
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

National Dance Award winners Norwegian culture Dance companies Norske Talenter Got Talent contestants Arts organizations established in 2006 2006 establishments in Norway no:Hallgrim Hansegård