HEN BLAKSTAD COLLABORATES WITH
Henriette Blakstad, Artistic and Managing Director Norway
Is a performing artist, director/choreographer, educator, text developer and costume designer. She is Artistic and Managing director for HEN BLAKSTAD (2011-20), with productions performed in Beijing, Guangzhou, Singapore and Norway. The company develops art within theatre, site specific/land art, text, virtual theatre and gives workshops. Henriette has through workshops in New York with Anne Bogart (composition, and The Viewpoints) and as a teacher/director immersed herself within experimental, compositional, postmodern methods and been giving workshops in New York, Beijing, Singapore, Norsk Skuespillersenter, Det Norske Teater to mention some. At the moment she is building a home for herself, and a national and international art residence at Nesodden in Norway. She has recently received her Post Graduate Degree as an adjunct professor, a lecturer/educator within theatre and drama from Oslo National Academy of The Arts, where she in 1992 took her BA in dance, and shortly after an actor degree from NISS (Høgskolen i Kristiania). With more than 30 years as a performative artist she has a broad range of experience as an independent artist working with groups as Marius Kolbenstvedt, Hildebrand Productions, Animalske Produksjoner, The Living Theater, Ibsen International, Guri Guri Henriksen, Kompaniet Normalitet, and from Norwegian state theatres as Det Norske Teater, Torshov Teatret, Den Nasjonale Scene and Norland Teater.
For the four last years she has been connected as an actor to Grusomhetens Teater where she recently performed as the lead part in “The Raven” influenced by Edgar Allan Poe´s well known poem with the same name.
Mary Ellen Beaudreau, Performer/Consultant USA
Mary Ellen (Mellen) is a performing artist and director living in Brooklyn, NY. She has 15 years of experience as a director, choreographer, dancer, producer and educator. She received her MA in Choreography from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London and a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School in NY. Mellen performed with renowned companies, including San Francisco Ballet, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, RUBBERBANDance Company, Charlotte Ballet, and Fort Wayne Ballet. Her choreography for dance, film, theatre and opera productions have been performed at the Royal College of Music in London, The Laban Centre in London, Festival Ballet Providence in Rhode Island, American Players Theatre in Wisconsin, Classic Stage Company in New York, Charlotte Ballet in North Carolina, Fort Wayne Ballet in Indiana, Columbia University in New York, Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, The Actor’s Fund Theatre in New York and Judson Memorial Church in New York. Mellen held the following positions as the Development Assistant of Arts & Science Department at New York University, Producer of Performance & Residencies at Gibney Dance Center in New York, and Director of the Brooklyn Ballet School.
Mats Blakstad, Virtual Design Norway
Has a Bachelor in Culture and Communication, and a Bachelor in Design, Use and interaction from the University of Oslo, and currently doing his master thesis at UiO- University of Oslo, the faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, at the course Informatics.
In April 2021 he was supposed to travel to Malawi and conduct a participative design process with health workers, but because of covid 19 he now works to change his whole master thesis. Mats states: "I’m interested in participative design, ICT for development and co-creation".
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Jiang Ke-Yu, Sound/Performer/Consultant China
Ke-Yu (Iris), living in Beijing/China is a choreographer/director, educator, sound-designer, producer and performing artist, with a BA from Beijing Dance Academy. She is Artistic and Managing Director for Abbe Dance Company and Body Boulevard Art Platform with her husband choreographer/musician Simon Abbe from Cameroon. They have produced productions performed in France, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, UK, Cameroon, Sydney and China. Ke-Yu has made choreography for the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, and where part of establishing and founding, Cameroon National Dance Company in 2004/09.
Ine Ubben, Performer/Consultant, Belgium
Ine Uben is a performance artist working within devised theatre, puppets, objects, often as a dramaturgical partner and thinking companion, living in Zutendaal in Belgium. She has currently graduated with a Master degree from The Academy of Performing Arts- Damu, in Prague. A Degree as a director within devised, object theatre, the department of alternative/puppet theatre. In 2014 she did her BA at Fontys Academy for Theatre in Tilburg/Netherland (theatre, musical and circus).
Claudia Lucacel, Film and Photo/Consultant, Norway/Greece/Romania
Claudia Lucacel is an artist experimenting within visual and performing arts as a performer, photographer, filmmaker and producer, based in Oslo.. She is originally from Iasi, Romania, and grew up in Santorini, Greece. In 2012, Claudia graduated from the University of Peloponnese - Faculty of Fine Arts, Theatre Studies Department with a BA in Acting and Directing and since then she has been working in various theatre productions in Greece, USA, UK and Norway.
She studied Documentary Film Art at OsloMet, where she is also currently doing her MA in Drama & Theater. With her master thesis, she researches the impact of using Applied Theater practices as a different approach towards immigrant second language and cultural learning in Norway. Alongside her studies, she also works as a producer for theater company Grusomhetens Teater, the music organisation VoxLAB and manages her farm in the countryside of Hadeland.
Tuva Hennum, Performer/filmmaker/text development, Norway
Tuva Hennum (1984) is a trained actor and educator in theatre. Her education is from The Nordic Black Theatre, Oslo National Academy of the Arts- The academy of Theatre with a Post Certificate in Education, at the same academy she is soon to graduate from the theatre faculty with a Master degree in performance and culture with interdisciplinary perspectives. She expresses herself in several fields, including film and performing arts where she writes scripts and prepares directorial
concepts, and acts herself in the productions. Hennum works in the film collective Frognerkontoret and the theater company Normaliteten. She won the Terje Vigen award in 2013 for her script and directorial work with the film Sanctuary during the Short Film Festival in Grimstad. In 2019, she wrote the script, directed and starred in Normaliteten, which premiered at Nordland Teater. Other selected works are Back to Nothing, A Poorer Life and Once a Dad.
Margunn Kilde, Tromsø, Norway.
Artistic Director Vilde Productions in co- production with HenBlakstad and Miguel Dobrodenka.
Collaboration with "ROBIN", queer performative platform 2022-25. More to come....
Miguel Dobrodenka, Lunner, Norway.
In co- production with HenBlakstad and Vilde Productions.
Collaboration with "ROBIN", queer performative platform 2022-25. More to come...
Guri Guri Henriksen. Oslo, Norway.
Visual Artist in collaboration with HenBlakstad and Animalske, together we have the concept of "THE BIRD LADIES" 2022-25. More to come...
Anne Mali Sæther. Oslo, Norway.
Artistic Director Animalske Productions. She is in collaboration with HenBlakstad and Guri Guri Henriksen, together we have the concept of "THE BIRD LADIES" 2022-25. More to come....
