Photo: André WulfInger-Reidun Olsen (iRo) (b.1976) is a dancer, choreographer and performance artist based in Oslo, Norway. She holds a MFA in Performance from the Norwegian Theater Academy, Østfold University College (2018-20), a BA in Choreography from Academy of Dance, National Academy of Arts in Oslo (2000-03), and a two year degree from School of New Dance (1996-98), now Høyskolen for Dansekunst – HFDK.no.
iRo´s artistic work lives between choreography and performance art and involves performative work in various formats and spaces – indoors and outdoors. Her works is developed in dialogue with place, history, non-human materials, sound, text, and people, and very often in combination of more than one of these elements. The work emerges through specific methods involving the body, self-development practices, reflection, and critical thinking. Her core methodology is rooted in a listening practice that explicitly is about taking time - time to notice what happens in encounters with the other. She senses, reflects, and respond, and allows relationships to selected places, materials and people unfold over time into materialized artistic expressions, strategies, and collaborations, and creates art that consciously relates to the context and zeitgeist in which it arises and are practiced within.
iRo is a certified self-development teacher, life coach and healer, and are using somatic, cognitive, and spiritual methods from these practices as tools and inspiration in her artistic research, in which she explores different forms of listening, presence, and layers of consciousness to dive into the unknown to reach new and deeper knowledge, new ideas and ethics within performance making.
Recent projects are the film 'Jordtone' (Earth tone) (2020), which was made in collaboration with filmmaker and visual artist André Wulf, and the performance 'Jeg graver' (I am digging)(2019), both works were part of her MA project, at the Norwegian Theater Academy in Fredrikstad, Norway, in which she was exploring clay as performative material and the protagonist in the work, developed in dialog with her own body, textiles and place.
iRo is also part of various art collectives and projects, in some with an equally shared artistic responsibility and practice and in other works she is commissioned to take part as a choreographer, dancer, dramaturg, mentor, artistic consultant and curator.
Together with artist colleague Marianne Skjeldal, iRo runs the collaboration LATERNA, that in May 2018 received a 3-year funding for the project ‘CoSA-Concerning the Spiritual in Art,
Part 2 (2018-2020)’, and due to Covide-19 the project period got extended to 2022. Since 2017 LATERNA has been tracing history, gathering collectives, made site-specific performances, a choreographic growing of sister gardens in two countries (NO/RU) and met with 4 city trees in Oslo once every season throughout the project period. Within the CoSA project they created new ways of shaping communities that took place in historical places like Monte Verità, Ascona (CH), Steilneset Memorial, Vardø (NO), the Museum of St. Petersburg Avantgarde, St. Petersburg (RU) and at Black Box teater (BBt) in Oslo.
As part of the CoSA project they collaborated with international artist such as; Robert Steijn (NL), Keith Hennessy (CA/US), Dohee Lee (US/KR), Lisa Jeannin (SE/FR), Ingeborg S. Olerud(NO), Fernanda Branco (NO/BS), Margrethe Pettersen (NO), Julia Adsuki (AU/SE), Liv Kristin Holmberg (NO/DE), Ekatarina Sheldanova (RU), Anastasia Patsey (RU/DE), Anastasya Kiziliva (RU) and Lilach Pnina Livne (IL).
In 2020-21 LATERNA was associated artists at BBt and in June 2022 they curated the festival ‘Hidden Connections – Visible Ecologies’ also at BBt. LATERNA is touching borderlands of dance, choreography, ritual and healing, the artworks are relational, make places accessible and open space for dialogue and transformation. www.laternalaterna.org
In recent years, iRo has been working as a dancer in choreographies/projects by Mia Habib Productions, Elle Sofe Sara, Kyuja Bae and Liv Kristin Holmberg/Christina Lindgren. Other important ongoing collaborations are with André Wulf and Biño Sauitzvy.
iRo has been touring and presenting her work in the United States, China, Mexico, Spain, Greece, Russia, Sweden, and Norway. In 2009 and 2014 she was awarded with a 3-year Norwegian Government Grant for Artists.
iRo´s artistic work lives between choreography and performance art and involves performative work in various formats and spaces – indoors and outdoors. Her works is developed in dialogue with place, history, non-human materials, sound, text, and people, and very often in combination of more than one of these elements. The work emerges through specific methods involving the body, self-development practices, reflection, and critical thinking. Her core methodology is rooted in a listening practice that explicitly is about taking time - time to notice what happens in encounters with the other. She senses, reflects, and respond, and allows relationships to selected places, materials and people unfold over time into materialized artistic expressions, strategies, and collaborations, and creates art that consciously relates to the context and zeitgeist in which it arises and are practiced within.
iRo is a certified self-development teacher, life coach and healer, and are using somatic, cognitive, and spiritual methods from these practices as tools and inspiration in her artistic research, in which she explores different forms of listening, presence, and layers of consciousness to dive into the unknown to reach new and deeper knowledge, new ideas and ethics within performance making.
Recent projects are the film 'Jordtone' (Earth tone) (2020), which was made in collaboration with filmmaker and visual artist André Wulf, and the performance 'Jeg graver' (I am digging)(2019), both works were part of her MA project, at the Norwegian Theater Academy in Fredrikstad, Norway, in which she was exploring clay as performative material and the protagonist in the work, developed in dialog with her own body, textiles and place.
iRo is also part of various art collectives and projects, in some with an equally shared artistic responsibility and practice and in other works she is commissioned to take part as a choreographer, dancer, dramaturg, mentor, artistic consultant and curator.
Together with artist colleague Marianne Skjeldal, iRo runs the collaboration LATERNA, that in May 2018 received a 3-year funding for the project ‘CoSA-Concerning the Spiritual in Art,
Part 2 (2018-2020)’, and due to Covide-19 the project period got extended to 2022. Since 2017 LATERNA has been tracing history, gathering collectives, made site-specific performances, a choreographic growing of sister gardens in two countries (NO/RU) and met with 4 city trees in Oslo once every season throughout the project period. Within the CoSA project they created new ways of shaping communities that took place in historical places like Monte Verità, Ascona (CH), Steilneset Memorial, Vardø (NO), the Museum of St. Petersburg Avantgarde, St. Petersburg (RU) and at Black Box teater (BBt) in Oslo.
As part of the CoSA project they collaborated with international artist such as; Robert Steijn (NL), Keith Hennessy (CA/US), Dohee Lee (US/KR), Lisa Jeannin (SE/FR), Ingeborg S. Olerud(NO), Fernanda Branco (NO/BS), Margrethe Pettersen (NO), Julia Adsuki (AU/SE), Liv Kristin Holmberg (NO/DE), Ekatarina Sheldanova (RU), Anastasia Patsey (RU/DE), Anastasya Kiziliva (RU) and Lilach Pnina Livne (IL).
In 2020-21 LATERNA was associated artists at BBt and in June 2022 they curated the festival ‘Hidden Connections – Visible Ecologies’ also at BBt. LATERNA is touching borderlands of dance, choreography, ritual and healing, the artworks are relational, make places accessible and open space for dialogue and transformation. www.laternalaterna.org
In recent years, iRo has been working as a dancer in choreographies/projects by Mia Habib Productions, Elle Sofe Sara, Kyuja Bae and Liv Kristin Holmberg/Christina Lindgren. Other important ongoing collaborations are with André Wulf and Biño Sauitzvy.
iRo has been touring and presenting her work in the United States, China, Mexico, Spain, Greece, Russia, Sweden, and Norway. In 2009 and 2014 she was awarded with a 3-year Norwegian Government Grant for Artists.