Turning Vinegar into Wine (2023)

Premiere the 9th of November 2023, Dansens Hus, Oslo (NO)

«The performance looks at youth fixation, but if there is anything that emerges in this performance, it is that it is possible to rise above it. Nilseng is good at the balance between strength and vulnerability, and the way this is expressed in the performance, there is something mature and calm about it. Perhaps it is not always the new wine that blooms most vigorously.» - Julie Rongved Amundsen/scenekunst.no 

«Turning Vinegar into Wine is in the range between the absurd, the real and the outrageous, and contributes to more openness around taboos such as the sexual health of older queers.» - Marte Sterud, Norsk Shakespearetidsskrift

Read the reviews here: scenekunst.no and Norsk Shakespeare Tidsskrift (in Norwegian).

Touring

DansiT, Trondheim (NO) 30th of November and 1st of December 2023

Turning Vinegar into Wine

A group of gay male bodies have taken up residence in a room.
They are of different ages, but are all getting older – all the time, minute by minute.

Always older – until time stops
How does it feel?
What does it mean?

Bodies are beautiful, bodies are ugly, bodies are fit, bodies are weak.
The sun slides slowly across the sky, the skin is drawn to the ground.
Is this a birthday?

ULF is a collaboration between dance artist Ulf Nilseng, scenographer and stage artist Corentin JPM Leven and composer and musician Amund Ulvestad. They met while working on the critically acclaimed trilogy ULF Goes Religious (2018-2022), which was an exploration of homosexuality viewed against religion and religious rituals, initiated by Ulf Nilseng. Together they create stage art of gay identities, gay aesthetics, and gay life. With Turning Vinegar into Wine, they move into a new matter, namely the skin, the aging gay body, and the specific gay experience of aging.

Creative team

Idea and artistic direction: Corentin JPM Leven, Ulf Nilseng, Amund Ulvestad
Performed by: Øyvind Jørgensen, Marius Kjos, Ulf Nilseng, Amund Ulvestad
Choreography: Ulf Nilseng
Composition and sound design: Amund Ulvestad
Scenography and costume design: Corentin Jean Paul Marcel Leven
Lighting design: Magnus MIkaelsen
Project manager: Corentin JPM Leven
Production: Jorunn Kjersem Hildre
Photos: Tale Hendnes/Dansens Hus, Oslo
Film: Vibeke Heide

Duration: 75 minutes

Funding

Arts Council Norway
Fund for Sound and Image
Fund for Performing Artists

Coproduction

Dansens Hus, Oslo
DansiT, Trondheim

Contact
Jorunn Kjersem Hildre (producer)
E-mail: jorunn.kjersem.hildre@gmail.com
Phone: +47 992 35 345