Dance in Narvik er en dokumentasjons- og formidlingsblogg som tar for seg historien om scenisk dans i Narvik. Arbeidet ble påbegynt midt på 2000-tallet, i 2006, og har pågått kontinuerlig siden.
Prosjektet har hatt som mål å samle, bevare og tilgjengeliggjøre visuell og historisk dokumentasjon knyttet til dansevirksomhet i Narvik. Over 2000 fotografier er digitalisert, med materiale fra Narvik kulturskole, Vinterfestuka i Narvik, samt tre private ballettskoler som var i virksomhet i perioden 1937–1997. I tillegg er danse- og musikkopplæringen i regi av Narvik kulturskole dokumentert.
Arbeidet har resultert i boken Come Dance With Me – the history of theatrical dance in Narvik, samt artikler publisert i Årbok for Narvik i 2023, 2024 og 2025. Nettstedet fungerer både som arkiv og som formidlingsplattform for denne delen av byens kulturhistorie.
Alt arbeid knyttet til nettstedet, boken og artiklene er utført på frivillig basis og uten ekstern finansiering. Prosjektet er drevet av engasjement for dansen som kunstform og for Narviks lokale kulturhistorie, med et ønske om å gjøre denne historien tilgjengelig for både nåværende og kommende generasjoner.
Order your copy ofCome Dance With Me! here
Foreword to the book click here
Fiona Jane Ellingsen click here
Dansehistorien i Narvik
Forskning og tilleggsmateriale knyttet til boken, inkludert rollelister og opptaksfilmer fra forestillinger i Narvik, er publisert nedenfor. Klikk på lenkene for tilgang. Merk at nettstedet fortsatt er under revisjon, og at enkelte kategorier ikke er fullstendige.
- Come Dance With Me ble utgitt 21. februar 2023. Bestilling – klikk her
- Avisartikkel om boken (på norsk) – klikk her
- Intervju med forfatteren (på norsk): Dypdykk i Narviks dansehistorie – klikk her
- Podkast med forfatteren (på norsk), 2. november 2022: Kom skal vi dans – klikk her
- Uttalelser / anbefalinger
History of Dance in Narvik
Research and additional materials related to the book, including role lists and recital films from Narvik, are published below. Click on the links for access, noting that the site is still being revised and some categories are incomplete.
- “Come Dance With Me” was published 21st February 2023. Orders click here
- Newspaper article about the book in Norwegian – click here
- An interview with the author in Norwegian click here: Dypdykk i Narviks dansehistorie
- A podcast with the author in Norwegian November 2, 2022 click here Podcast – Kom skal vi dans
- Testimonials
Additional resources – Ytterligere ressurser
Dance Takes Root in Narvik – Gunvor Bjørhus ballet
BUL Narvik
Henry Haagensen Life and Career:
Film about Henry Haagensen click here
– Early Years
– Ny Norsk Ballett
– Tours Overseas with Ny Norsk Ballett
–Career and Photo Gallery
– Narvik Teaterlag 1945 – 1955
Henry Haagensens Ballettskole 1951- 1954
Henry Haagensen returns to Oslo 1954 – 1957
Henry Haagensens Ballettskole 1957-1981
Henry Haagensen, the teacher
The Legacy of Henry Haagensen
Henry Haagensen choreographies:
Anniversary shows:
– 10th Jubilee (1962)
– 15th Jubilee (1967)
– 20th Jubilee (1973)
– 25th Jubilee (1978)
Skal vi dains for dæ? (1978)
Disco Fashion Show (1979)
Henry Haagensen’s filmed choreographies
Photo Gallery – Aud Ljunggren Collection
Photo Gallery from Haagensen’s ballets
Kirsten Lian née Foshaug:
Kirsten Lian (Norwegian text)
Kirsten Lians Ballettskole 1982-1993
Dido and Aeneas (1991)
Chess In Concert (1992)
Dido and Aeneas (1996)
Czardasfyrstinnen (1997)
Kirsten Lian’s filmed choreographies
Photo Gallery from Lian’s ballets
Narvik kulturskole
Founding of the community music school in Narvik
Bestillingsverk
– 1990 Roasme
– 1995 Bak mørke vintrar venter ein vår
– 2006 Áhkunjárga
Central projects in the community school
Balletten 2000 trinn
Barnas VU
Barn og unges dans – Dance for Children (1993-1996)
Blekkulf
Cell Block Tango
Christmas Recitals: 1997 – 2005
Dansens uke (1994)
Dans Som Kulturell Bro (1997-1998)
DRAMUDA (1997)
Dyrene i Hakkebakkeskogen
End of Year Concerts: 1996 – 2006
FINN – Harstad: Rallarballetten
Grease (2005)
Kulturtrøkk (2006)
40th Anniversary Concert – La Skogen Leve (1993)
50th Anniversary Concert (2003)
60th Anniversary Concert (2013)
Move (2008)
Nasjonalballetten Nord-Norge Turne 1994: Bélas Bro
Nøtteknekkeren – The Nutcracker (2004)
Peter and the Wolf (2004)
Sigøynerliv (1999)
Snødronning (2018)
Stjerner på Plakaten – A Chorus Line (2003)
Tante Grønn, Tante Brunn og Tante Fiolett (2005)
Viktoria Cats (2001)
Interviews
Aud Ljunggren
Olav Sigurd Alstad
Inger Louise Bjarkøy Henschien neé Andersen
Alex Beeton
Performances and study trips overseas
Vinterfestuka
70 år med dans magi
Minneverdige Øyeblikk fra Presseshowet 1960 – 1993
Barnas Festforestilling: Historien om en VU-suksess
Lunsjkonsertene på Sjømannskirka 1993 – 1999
Lunsjkonsertene på Sjømannskirka 2000 – 2006
Årets Sprellemann –En pris som speiler Narvik
Student portraits
Heidi Ruud Ellingsen
Malin Wongraven (tid. Pettersen)
Ingrid Søraas
Diverse articles on culture in Narvik in Norwegian
Historien on Teatersalen – Narvik Kulturhus
Elrid Jakobsen
Barneteateret i Narvik
VUs høyeste utmerkelse, Sølvslegga, var utdelt til Narvik Kulturskole 26. mars 2023
Henry Haagensens Ballet School, 1951 at Bondeheimen (later Albatross). Top: from the left Elise Turid?, remainder unknown. Row 2: from the left, Elin Brattberg, Kjersti Røsok, unknown, Sissel Sørensen, Inger-Lise Sund Petersen. Front row: from the left Frid-Lillian Bergfall and Kirsten Lian neé Foshaug Photo: Carl Knudsen Source: Facebook post Ulf Ragnar Hanssen, Narvik før og Nå June 24th 2018
About the author
The author of this site is Fiona Jane Ellingsen, whose intimate knowledge of dance has been gained over a period of fifty years. She grew up in Australian, where she took her dance education under Margaret Chapple, at the Bodenweiser Dance Center in Pitt St, Sydney; one of the few schools of modern dance in Australia at the time. The school offered a wide range of contemporary dance techniques. The school’s founder was the pioneer of modern dance, Gertrud Bodenweiser. Bodenweiser was Professor of the Vienna State Academy of Music and Dancing and formed a Central European style dance group before she emigrated to Australia just prior to WWII in 1939 and founded a school and company.
After graduating from Sydney University in 1978, Fiona worked in ACT schools where she established Dance Studies for college students. She also taught dance to the gymnastic teams at the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.
Fiona moved to Norway in 1987. She established dance instruction in Narvik musikkskole, later kulturskole, where she worked from the early 1990’s until her retirement from dance teaching in 2005. She currently works as as an English teacher at Narvik Upper Secondary School, Frydenlund.
This site is based on extensive research in newspapers, dance journals, films on NRK, conversations with Henry Haagensen, Kirtsten Lian née Foshaug, interviews with their pupils, and research into their personal archives and other institutional archives. Personal experience from working in Narvik council as a consultant, dance teacher and music producer in the period 1990-2006. The author has also conducted extensive research into dance in Norway.
Scattered throughout this site is informative discussions about dance in Narvik and contains many anecdotes and insights into dance instruction, past concerts and recitals. The site will eventually include all dance productions conducted in Narvik from the early 1990’s until the present day.
If you would like to contribute to the site, you are welcome to contact the author.
National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an14096641
Gertrud Bodenwieser was a Viennese-born dancer, choreographer and teacher who worked in a modern expressionist mode, developing her own vocabulary of new forms and her own method of teaching ‘free’ dance. On tour with her company in South America in the late 1930s she found herself unable to return to Vienna and arrived in Australia in 1939. She immediately established a company in Sydney, variously called the Bodenwieser Ballet and the Bodenwieser Viennese Ballet, and continued to direct, choreograph and teach until her death.
Bodenwieser’s works often dealt with social issues (Demon Machine) although she also made some lighter dance pieces (Blue Danube Waltz) and towards the end of her career began looking to Australia as a source of inspiration (Central Australian Suite).
Kilde: Biographical Note
Clif Peir: Portrait of Gertrud Bodenwieser, c. 1950 Gertrud Bodenwieser Archives PIC R11528
A list of Bodenwieser’s choreography from 1919 to 1959 is in: Shona Dunlop MacTavish, An Ecstasy of Purpose: The life and art of Gertrud Bodenwieser (Dunedin: Shona Dunlop MacTavish, 1987), p. 164-173