Oslo NCP #13 2026

16.4.2026 0 Like 0 kommenttia

The 13th edition of the Nordic Choreographic Platform held in Oslo in March 2026 focused on the relationship with music, musical thinking and composition.

The course Instant Composition – scores, deep listening and music was led by Lene Grenanger, Associate Professor in Composition at the Music Theory and Music Technology Department, in collaboration with Jennifer Torrence, Associate Professor of Percussion at the Brass, Woodwind and Percussion Department at the Norwegian Music Academy (NMH) and Janne-Camilla Lyster, Professor in Choreography at Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

The course Instant Composition – scores, deep listening and music invited students to a studio-based workshop exploration of composition as a practice from the viewpoint of art music, rooted in Western traditions. The course offered a laboratory to explore how music and dance can emerge and co-exist simultaneously as creative components in a compositional practice.

The course’s objectives and relevance responded to the dire need in the fields of choreography and dance to explore the relationship between music and dance. In the 21st century, the use of live music in contemporary dance training has disappeared, replaced by recorded music and sound. At the same time, access to and means of sound sources have exploded. This context calls for renewed attention and skills for listening to and working with sound and music compositionally in dance.

The course aimed to address the need to invest in the relationship between live music/sound and dancing, exploring what it can be and enhancing attentive listening, drawing on the concept of deep listening by Pauline Oliveros, who distinguishes between the involuntary nature of hearing and the conscious nature of listening.

The core concepts that were explored were moving attention and instant composition.

In addition to the course there were meetings and performances. The students got to meet the artistic directors of Dansens Hus, Stine Nilsen, and the artistic leader of CODA Dance Festival in Oslo, Birgit Berndt, as well as seeing performances at Black Box Theatre and Dansens Hus.

While the students attended to their programme, the staff had meetings on current affairs on the programmes, planning the forthcoming Developent Seminar 2. in Oslo in June and the NCP meeting in Helsinki in November 2026.