Sand Flight

Ingri Fiksdal, Jonas Corell Petersen (Norway)

Sand Flight is an outdoor performance that invites audiences into a speculative future where human history is buried, scattered, and reimagined through sand. At the heart of the project is a vast man-made sand dune serving as both stage and symbol — a living archive of the past and a raw canvas for the future.

Exploring the fragility of our environments and the shifting relationship between urban landscapes and nature, Sand Flight imagines a future where cities dissolve into sand. Eight performers occupy the dune in an evocative choreography that merges body and terrain — crawling, climbing, collapsing, and reforming into shifting constellations that echo ancient rituals and post-human futures. The sand becomes an active element of the performance, blurring the boundaries between body, landscape, and time.

Accompanied by a visceral soundscape ranging from deep tectonic rumbles to ethereal choral voices, Sand Flight bridges geological time and human emotion. It is a meditation on memory, loss, transformation, and the resilience of matter.

EASY READ VERSION

Sand Flight is an outdoor dance performance.

The performance is about an imaginary future world.

This world is made of sand.

The history of humankind is buried under the sand.

The sand also gives people a chance to build a new world.

The performance takes place on a large sand dune.

Eight dancers move across the dune.

They crawl.

They climb.

They stand up.

They fall down.

Together, their bodies make different shapes.

These shapes show old rituals.

They also show ideas and dreams about the future.

The sand is an important symbol.

It is always moving.

But it always stays close to the sand dune.

People adapt to the sand.

The performance includes deep, rumbling sounds.

The performance also includes the voices of a choir.

In this performance, nature and people connect.

ABOUT ARTISTS

Ingri Fiksdal is an Oslo-based choreographer and artistic researcher with a PhD from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her work explores affect, posthumanism, and speculative choreography, examining how bodies, gender, species, ethnicity, knowledge, and history intersect. Combining theory and practice, she develops performances that challenge dominant perspectives and power structures. From 2020–2024, she was affiliated with the CoFUTURES research group at the University of Oslo, focusing on global futurisms beyond anglophone traditions. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals and institutions including Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Palais de Tokyo, MCA Chicago, Tanzhaus NRW, and Steirischer Herbst.

Jonas Corell Petersen is a Danish-born director, playwright, and artist based in Norway, educated at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. His performances have toured widely across Europe and beyond, including at Staatstheater Stuttgart, Toneelmakerij, Nottingham Playhouse, and MCA Chicago. Resident director at the National Theatre in Oslo from 2015–2018, his work explores community, freedom, deep history, and the relationship between humans and nature. Known for collaborative and music-driven live performances, he has received several awards, including the European Fast Forward Award and the Norwegian Hedda Award. Their previous collaboration, *State* (2016), toured internationally until 2021.

CREDITS

Concept, choreography, direction: Ingri Fiksdal and Jonas Corell Petersen

Costume Designer: David Gehrt

Composer, Sound designer: Lasse Marhaug

Composer, choir sections: Gaute Tønder

Originally Co-Developed and Performed by: Sudesh Adhana and Pernille Holden, with Camil Bellefleur, Brayden Cairns, Milina “Fletch” Fletcher, Rakeem Hardy, Megumi Kokuba, and Elizabeth Yip

Performed in Riga by: Pernille Holden, Trine Lise Moe, Jon Filip Fahlstrøm, Bjørk Mynte Paulse, Jonathan Ibsen, Dmitrijs Gaitjukevičs, Edvards Kurmiņš, Darja Turčenko

Choir: Cēsis Youth Choir

Conductor: Patriks Kārlis Stepe

Producer: Ingri Fiksdal

Distribution for Fiksdal dans stiftelse: Nicole Schuchardt

Local Producer: Sandra Lapkovska (New Theatre Institute of Latvia)

ACCESSIBILITY

Mobility and environment

The performance takes place outdoors. The venue has step-free access, and the audience area is located in an open outdoor space. Accessible TOITOI toilets are available in the industrial area near the stage, including facilities suitable for wheelchair users.

Wheelchair users are advised to use the pavement on the right-hand side of Bukultu Street, as there is no dropped kerb on the left-hand side. The surface in the audience area may be slightly uneven and may include small stones or sand. Festival volunteers will be available to provide assistance and support if needed.

In addition, there is a petrol station with accessible toilet facilities approximately 330 metres from the performance venue, at the intersection of Bukultu Street and Duntes Street.

Sensory environment
This is a relaxed performance. The performance is primarily based on visual action and choral music.
During relaxed performances, audience members are welcome to move around freely, change places, leave and return if needed. Neurodivergent audience members are especially welcome, and everyone is encouraged to be accepting of a more relaxed range of audience behaviour during the performance.

Availability of information
The performance contains no spoken or written text.

Support
The performance takes place outdoors, so the audience experience may be affected by weather conditions and surrounding environmental noise.

Festival volunteers will welcome visitors at the entrance and, if needed, can accompany them to their seating area. Wheelchair users can be accommodated at the ends of rows or in areas without benches.