Interview with the dancers from the performance "Bror"

On Thursday, our third day of Showbox week, we saw the performance Bror. We had been looking forward to this for a long time. After the performance, we were lucky enough to interview the dancers Mira Kristiansen, Suad Mandi and Ousman Souleymane. They were incredibly welcoming, and the nervousness quickly disappeared. We had a lot of questions and felt we got answers to most of them.

How do you think the show is going?
"It's going well. It's very tiring, and it has its ups and downs, but all in all we're happy." They reply, still breathing heavily after the performance they just danced.

What do you think about classical music being combined with hip hop dance?
"It's both fun and challenging. It's exciting to try something new. In the beginning it was a very strange idea. None of us knew how the show was going to end up, but now it's going well."

What challenges have you encountered in connection with the music?
"There is a lot of unfamiliarity with the music, especially the rhythms. Classical music ends rhythm very often, which makes it difficult to follow. In hip hop, there's a kind of fixed beat, which makes it easy to follow. The movements come naturally there." They answered right away.

What do you think about a hip hop performance being organized at the opera?
"It's really cool that many cultures crash together in one place." They answer eagerly and happily. "In addition, we are incredibly happy that we get to be a part of it."

How much work goes into a show like this?
"For us, it took a total of three months, starting with training twice a week, but later in the process, every day. It took time to get used to the movements and working with each other as a team." The dancers now seemed very connected, and they seemed to work well together as a group.

The performance required extensive dance experience. The dancers said they had been dancing from around four to six years of serious dance, but that this varied from person to person.

During the performance, almost all the dancers had a type of board in front of them. They immediately replied that these were shields that would protect them from challenges in life, both from their circle of friends and their fraternity. This is where the show gets its name from.

Did you convey a clear story with this performance?
"Not really." They answered uncertainly. "The actual ballet piece we danced to has a clear victim throughout the performance, but we turned this around a bit and gave several solo roles instead. Then one person is always singled out. We protect ourselves from each other. You never know where you stand in a gang or a brotherhood, but at the end of the day, we stand together."

How did you proceed when you found out you would be dancing for this performance?
"In the beginning, we worked first and foremost on getting to know the music and how to dance to it. We actually practiced with a type of ball, which we had to hold on to the whole time we were dancing. That way we got used to letting the movements "flow" through the body. "

 Do you have any more performances from Planet during the year?
"Not in 2012, but in 2013 there will be a larger performance in February or March, with 60 to 80 dancers, which we are really looking forward to."