Jo Strømgren Kompani - 25 years!

We wish you all a peaceful and Merry Christmas

We would like to thank for another exciting year! It is 25 years since Jo Strømgren Kompani (JSK) was founded, and 2023 has been filled with longer tours and several co-productions. We have performed almost 300 shows for record-breaking 40,000 audiences, which we are very proud of!

We kick-started 2023 by staging an old favourite, THE SOCIETY at The Norwegian Opera and Ballet with the original cast from 2008. We continued preparing for our first round of Summer Opera. After several years of dialogue, we finally achieved the realization of playing summer performances at The Opera arranged for children, youth and families for lower ticket prices. We performed excerpts from A DANCE TRIBUTE TO THE ART OF FOOTBALL and MADE IN OSLO, a total of 36 performances over two weeks, which were very well attended.

MADE IN OSLO was also performed in Kristiansund, and Istanbul, Turkey. THE LOFT performed in Moss, Norway and we finally made it to Yerevan, Armenia. A DANCE TRIBUTE TO THE ART OF FOOTBALL toured in Montenegro and Sicily. THE MINISTRY OF UNRESOLVED FEELINGS played for a full week at Trøndelag Teater, before a longer tour to Panama and Mexico. THE TIRED MAN made it to The Fargo Islands and toured for schools in Norway this year as well.

Jo Strømgren directed SYSTEM ERROR – his first play in sign-language for a co-production with Teater Manu in Norway. JSK also co-produced THE DROPOUTS with Skånes Danseteater, Sweden, ROULETTE with Lithuanian Drama Teatre, PHEROMONES with Juozo Miltinio Dramos Teatras, Lithuania, and THE HAT with Polish Dance Theatre. ROULETTE and PHEROMONES were both awarded prizes for best performance and best direction at Dalia’s Tamulevičiūtė Festival. THE HAT marked the 50th anniversary of the Polish Dance Theatre and the performance visited the Opera in Oslo to very good reviews.

Parallel with touring and co-productions, we have begun to work on a new all-evening performance THE BASEMENT, which will premiere at the Opera in May 2024. You will hear more about this in the new year.

In 2023, Jo Strømgren was also awarded the Anders Jahres cultural prize – an honorary award for outstanding contribution to the Norwegian cultural life, together with stage artists Indra Lorentzen and Sverre Anker Ousdal.

We would like to raise a glass to everyone who has made this possible and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For our 25th anniversary, we have made a short video with some new material, interviews and clips from the archive. Enjoy!

Warm Holiday greetings from the JSK team,
Henriette, Vanessa, Anne and Jo