A Conversation with Alan Lucien Øyen, writer, director, choreographer, and artistic director of winter guests

English Apr 25, 2022 Download

About the episode

In this special NAC Dance podcast, Cathy Levy (Executive Producer of Dance at Canada’s National Arts Centre), Nathalie Bonjour (Director of Performing Arts at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre), and Jim Smith (Artistic and Executive Director of Vancouver’s DanceHouse) chat with Alan Lucien Øyen, one of Norway’s most exciting multi-talented and in-demand artists, about his art and bringing Story, story, die. to Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto in June 2022 as part of Nordic Bridges, a celebration of Nordic art, culture and ideas across Canada in 2022. Alan describes how the remounting of this work that speaks to our isolation and how we present ourselves depending on who we are with and the situation we are in, feels like a victory after the postponements and setbacks imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He expresses gratitude for having been able to work in both theatre and dance; for the deeply moving experience of remounting Pina Bausch’s Sweet Mambo on Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch; for a future filled with exciting projects; and to be given the freedom and agency to look at things differently at a moment in time when the world seems to be rotating backwards.

Alan Lucien Øyen
Alan Lucien Øyen

After graduating from the School of Art in Oslo, Alan Lucien Øyen danced with The Norwegian National Company of Contemporary Dance, Carte Blanche and Amanda Miller's company Pretty Ugly before establishing winter guests in 2006 - a multidisciplinary company touring theatrical, dance and hybrid works in English for the international stage. Since 2009 Alan has been working closely together with the British playwright Andrew Wale. He has been a resident choreographer with the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet since 2013, where he most recently created “The Hamlet Complex” – a reworking of Shakespeare’s classic for actors, dancers and children.

Alan has won numerous awards for his work as choreographer, director and playwright. In 2018, he was invited to work for the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. In 2020/21, Alan will also create new full evening works for Paris Opera, Opera Flanders and Staatsoper Berlin.

Après ses études à l’École des arts d’Oslo, Alan Lucien Øyen s’est produit avec Carte Blanche, compagnie nationale de danse contemporaine de Norvège, et avec la compagnie Pretty Ugly d’Amanda Miller avant de fonder winter guests en 2006, compagnie multidisciplinaire présentant des œuvres de théâtre et de danse, mais aussi des pièces hybrides en anglais sur la scène internationale. Depuis 2009, il a étroitement collaboré avec le dramaturge britannique Andrew Wale. Chorégraphe en résidence auprès de l’Opéra national de Norvège depuis 2013, il a récemment créé The Hamlet Complex, qui revisite le classique de Shakespeare pour les interprètes de théâtre et de danse ainsi que les enfants.

Øyen a remporté de nombreux prix à titre de chorégraphe, metteur en scène et dramaturge. La légendaire compagnie Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch l’a invité à collaborer avec elle en 2018. En 2020–2021, Alan Lucien Øyen devait voir la création d’œuvres intégrales à l’Opéra de Paris, à l’Opéra de Flandre et à l’Opéra d’État de Berlin.
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