land — A project by Anna-Lise Marie Hearn


ABOUT THE PROJECT
            LAND is a site-responsive performance project that explores, translates, and expresses our complex and intricate relationship to landscape and the natural worlds that we inhabit and move through. Through a poetic and embodied lens, LAND dives deep into how the landscape moves, if not shapes us. LAND explores the intricate narrative between people and landscape, and the interplay between our inner and outer experiences. By merging dance, voice, music, and poetry, LAND translates the physical and emotive elements of the landscape into a textural and embodied expression of movement and sound.
            The project encompasses many elements; a 1-hour live performance with professional dancers and vocalists, a workshop and performance project for local youth, cross-disciplinary collaborations, local and international artistic exchange, a site-specific costume creation, a collaboration of poetry and music, and a site-responsive choreography.
            The project is led by director and choreographer Anna-Lise Marie Hearn (NO/UK). The music is composed by Christopher Benstead (UK), incorporating the poetry of local poet Solveig Johanne Grønstøl (NO) as lyrical content for the music. The costumes are made through a site-specific plant-based textile dying process in collaboration with artist Inês Neto dos Santos (PT/BE). The professional cast of 12 performers (7 dancers and 5 vocalists) all have a personal connection to western Norway.

“Stone, soil, rock, and sea. The land we move on, and the land in us. Everything melts together in the performance “LAND” in Moster Amfi.”
— Per Harald Gjerde, Bømlo-Nytt


Throughout the performance, LAND transmits a feeling of deep personal longing, a longing for connection and belonging, to oneself in connection to place, and in connection to the web of the natural world that we are a part of. Presenting textures, symbols, movement pathways, and structures on stage that have been found in the surrounding landscape, LAND moves through experiences, moments, and stories that unfold and reveal intricate narratives between people and landscape, re-wilding, and re-rooting to our interconnected oneness with nature. Episodes in the piece reveal poetic stanzas written by local poet Solveig Johanne Grønstøl. Solveig writes in Nynorsk about the dynamic interplay between people and landscape. These poems are woven into the music in the live sung vocals and in pre-recorded spoken word as a part of the soundscape.
            The music, composed by Christopher Benstead, combines both live vocals and amplified recorded sounds and atmospheres. It creates an immersive experience for the audience, where the sound moves from left to right, above and below, with voices in different locations in the space. The vocalists move with the dancers in the space, shifting spatial relationships and walking pathways. The voices become a part of the landscape.
            To embody and mirror the surrounding landscape, the performers wear costumes that visually reflect its colours and textures. Created in collaboration with artist Inês Neto dos Santos, the costumes are made by extracting natural dye from plant materials carefully gathered from the surrounding landscape and applied to natural linen fabrics. Each unique costume piece becomes a physical representation of time, reflecting layers in landscape and layers in life. The costumes thus become an intuitive, sensory map of the landscapes we are immersed in, and the performers themselves become “a landscape in movement”.
            With LAND, we work in contact with the landscape as a space for collaboration and performance. LAND presents an immersive performative experience to connect to the emotional associations and deep personal longing we have with our landscapes.

WHAT DOES THE LANDSCAPE AWAKEN WITHIN YOU?

“LAND was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Absolutely amazing how it hit, touched, healed and lifted me up”
— Linda Iren Østensen, audience member, LAND at Moster Amfi 2022


LAND premiered in August 2022 at Moster Amfi in Bømlo, Norway.
  Click here to view the LAND 2022 book.

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Design & Website by   Studio Foss
LAND is a site-responsive performance project that explores, translates, and expresses our complex and intricate relationship to landscape and the natural worlds that we inhabit and move through.
more info more info
Land 2022 book
contact us
a project by
  Anna-Lise Marie Hearn
co-produced by
  moster 2024

@land__project

NOR / ENG
HOW THE LANDSCAPE
SHAPES US

LAND — A PROJECT BY ANNA-LISE MARIE HEARN


ABOUT THE PROJECT
            LAND is a site-responsive performance project that explores, translates, and expresses our complex and intricate relationship to landscape and the natural worlds that we inhabit and move through. Through a poetic and embodied lens, LAND dives deep into how the landscape moves, if not shapes us. LAND explores the intricate narrative between people and landscape, and the interplay between our inner and outer experiences. By merging dance, voice, music, and poetry, LAND translates the physical and emotive elements of the landscape into a textural and embodied expression of movement and sound.
            The project encompasses many elements; a 1-hour live performance with professional dancers and vocalists, a workshop and performance project for local youth, cross-disciplinary collaborations, local and international artistic exchange, a site-specific costume creation, a collaboration of poetry and music, and a site-responsive choreography.
            The project is led by director and choreographer Anna-Lise Marie Hearn (NO/UK). The music is composed by Christopher Benstead (UK), incorporating the poetry of local poet Solveig Johanne Grønstøl (NO) as lyrical content for the music. The costumes are made through a site-specific plant-based textile dying process in collaboration with artist Inês Neto dos Santos (PT/BE). The professional cast of 12 performers (7 dancers and 5 vocalists) all have a personal connection to western Norway.

“Stone, soil, rock, and sea. The land we move on, and the land in us. Everything melts together in the performance “LAND” in Moster Amfi.”
— Per Harald Gjerde, Bømlo-Nytt


Throughout the performance, LAND transmits a feeling of deep personal longing, a longing for connection and belonging, to oneself in connection to place, and in connection to the web of the natural world that we are a part of. Presenting textures, symbols, movement pathways, and structures on stage that have been found in the surrounding landscape, LAND moves through experiences, moments, and stories that unfold and reveal intricate narratives between people and landscape, re-wilding, and re-rooting to our interconnected oneness with nature. Episodes in the piece reveal poetic stanzas written by local poet Solveig Johanne Grønstøl. Solveig writes in Nynorsk about the dynamic interplay between people and landscape. These poems are woven into the music in the live sung vocals and in pre-recorded spoken word as a part of the soundscape.
            The music, composed by Christopher Benstead, combines both live vocals and amplified recorded sounds and atmospheres. It creates an immersive experience for the audience, where the sound moves from left to right, above and below, with voices in different locations in the space. The vocalists move with the dancers in the space, shifting spatial relationships and walking pathways. The voices become a part of the landscape.
            To embody and mirror the surrounding landscape, the performers wear costumes that visually reflect its colours and textures. Created in collaboration with artist Inês Neto dos Santos, the costumes are made by extracting natural dye from plant materials carefully gathered from the surrounding landscape and applied to natural linen fabrics. Each unique costume piece becomes a physical representation of time, reflecting layers in landscape and layers in life. The costumes thus become an intuitive, sensory map of the landscapes we are immersed in, and the performers themselves become “a landscape in movement”.
            With LAND, we work in contact with the landscape as a space for collaboration and performance. LAND presents an immersive performative experience to connect to the emotional associations and deep personal longing we have with our landscapes.

WHAT DOES THE LANDSCAPE AWAKEN WITHIN YOU?

“LAND was one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Absolutely amazing how it hit, touched, healed and lifted me up”
— Linda Iren Østensen, audience member, LAND at Moster Amfi 2022


LAND premiered in August 2022 at Moster Amfi in Bømlo, Norway.
Click here to view the LAND 2022 book.

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Design & Website by Studio Foss