SITTING WITH/AS DYKES
(2027) Sitting with/as Dykes, a poetic and embodied exploration of queerness, presence, and perception that questions queer representation, grounded in the simple act of sitting. The project is rooted in durational performance, listening practices, and Heidi’s One-Note conceptual framework (working with a single movement or musical note). Investigating how bodies relate to time, space, and each other through minimal yet attentive gestures and actions.
The project explores the tension between singular and plural identities, what it means to identify, look like, move and sit as a dyke. It challenges the expectation that queerness is performed in legible ways, offering instead a porous, shifting formation: a temporary collective shaped by difference and co-presence, shared scores with intersecting histories and identities. The piece asks what becomes visible when we sit, and with whom, and how.
Concept and Choreography: Heidi Rustgaard
Spatial design: Ulrike Steven/what if: projects
Sound design: Ross Flight
Dramaturgy: Martin Hargreaves
Lights: Philip Isaksen
Performers: Core group of performers, 5 - 10 dancers, subject to the budget of the venue: Steffi Lund, Anne Panda Gjems Rudi, Maja Roel, Sunniva Moen Rørvik, Ann-Christin Kongsness, Marthe Sterud, Karen Røise Kielland, Maria Lothe, Liv Edginton & Ingvild Marstein Olsen. + Local group recruited through a workshop.
Co-producers: In CODA festival, Oslo, RAS Sandnes (NO), Fierce festival, Birmingham, UK.
Funding: Norwegian Arts Council, Fond for Sound and Movement (NO), Rose Choreographic School, Trinity Laban Seed Funding.
