A DANCE TRIBUTE TO PING PONG
ON TOUR
Ping Pong is not just a sport. It’s a philosophy. The intellectual recipe is a mix of Yin and Yang, Heaven and Hell, Stephen Hawking and Uri Geller, with a dash of Kahlil Gibran and Bruce Lee on top. More…
This is an independent continuation of the peculiar symbiosis of sport and dance JSK developed in 1997 with A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football. This original idea, the first of its kind ever, has been a strange bird in the international dance fauna. With close to 500 shows in 23 countries and still running strong, a number of prizes, and an inmense press coverage, it’s still represents an academic dilemma – is it populistic entertainment or cutting edge contemporary dance? The paradox of the football show is that it was meant as a short lived happening with a shoestring budget and a hilariously short rehearsal time.
A Dance Tribute to Ping Pong has been on the sketch board for almost a decade, in search for the right moment where the company can be sure of sufficient time and resources to take the potential further. The new production maintains a fearless approach to popular culture references and represents the more pure dance style of the company. In addition, puppet theatre is particularly present this time, along with a voiceover in badly spoken English. The show’s storyboard have deliberate similarities to the average american B-film script – a team of bleach white youngsters are taught Eastern philosophy in record time and take ping pong to a transcendental level. The thematic greyzone is deliberately grey – bouncing between respectless blasphemy at worst and charming naiveness at best.
Less…Language: Voiceover in optional English, French, and Norwegian.
Touring: France, Norway
Premiere: Rouen, France, November 2011
| Date | Venue | |
|---|---|---|
| 10/02 | Ibsenhuset, Skien, Norway | Tickets |
| 11/02 | Nøtterøy Kulturhus, Nøtterøy, Norway | Tickets |
| 12/02 | Drammens Teater, Drammen, Norway | Tickets |
| 14/02 | Kultuhuset Bølgen, Larvik, Norway | Tickets |
| 15/02 | Bakkenteigen, Horten, Norway | Tickets |
| 16/02 | Ål Kulturhus, Ål, Norway | Tickets |
| 18/02 | Otta Kulturhus, Otta, Norway | Tickets |
| 19/02 | Elverum Kulturhus, Elverum, Norway | Tickets |
| 20/02 | Ullensaker Kulturhus, Jessheim, Norway | Tickets |
| 29/04 | Tanzwoche Dresden 2012, Kulturzentrum Scheune, Dresden, Germany |
Choreography, costumes, props, text: Jo Strømgren
Music: a hilarious mix of existing music
Sound design: Lars Årdal, Audun Melbye
Lighting design: Stephen Rolfe
Puppet design/maker: Stephan Østensen
Performers: Sverre Magnus Heidenberg, Mikkel Are Olsenlund,
Jan Nicolai Wesnes, Maria Henriette Nygård
Understudies: Stian Danielsen, Caisa Strømmen Røstad
Producer: Jo Strømgren Kompani
Co-producers: Dansens Hus (N), Riksteatret (N)
Costumes and props are produced in collaboration with Riksteatret (N). Supported by:: Norsk kulturråd, Spenn.no
Download: Ping Pong technical requirements

