KRISTINE NILSEN OMA
Kristine Nilsen Oma is a dancer and choreographer living in Norway. She has ME, and though it has been difficult, she has found innovative ways to continue to perform her art.
Now that the world understands creating art on Zoom or Youtube Live in ways that they did not in the past, there is a door that is open for people with disabilities and chronic illness to show that they have been having to make artistic accommodations for years. And now, more people are watching.
Kristine Nilsen Oma has been a supporter of #MEAction and #MillionsMissing, aiming to spread the word and advocate for herself and people with ME across the world.
On October 29th, 2020, we can show up for her! She has been invited to perform in a prestigious festival and tickets are affordably priced for the first time. The piece Karantena #millionsmissing runs for one hour.
Statement from the artist describing the piece:
How do I move now that I am ill?
Karantena #millionsmissing is a planned series of artivism choreographies where Oma addresses the theme of isolation due to illness. One of these works is being streamed live at the festival directly from quarantine in her own flat. The choreographer is addressing a global experience. The vulnerability in the expression is being strengthened through using only one camera, the dogma film rules, and the fallible technique behind live streaming on a low budget.
The movements are inspired by the flat’s limitations and reflects the play between the theme of isolation, the room, the camera, and the inner response of knowing an audience is watching. The audience becomes a spectator of a choreographer’s longing to dance.
Many people have experienced isolation since Covid-19. For #millionsmissing- a global campaign for and with patients with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) – having to live in quarantine is more or less normal. Can the pandemic lead to change and empathy for the chronically ill now that so many people experience this particular kind of life?
Covid-19 opened the possibility for new ways of collaborating through shared experience. Karantena #millionsmissing has been created through interaction and dialogue with other artists, choreographers, and curators from Norway, Malaysia, Lebanon/France, Korea, and Australia. Despite the cultural differences and very different ways of expressing and culture, the conversations revealed a commonality in the experience of illness-related isolation.
Buy virtual tickets here!
Let us all support Kristine and show the art world that artists with ME and chronic illness are not only essential to the conversation- but their communities support them in droves.
Kristine says: “Karantena #millionsmissing is a work I have made during the pandemic inside my own flat. As I was self quarantining I noticed I had a little more resources as I wasnt going outdoors, and hence the work came into creation. I am determined to create value from my life as it is, and I found this invitation to the festival an opportunity to make people aware of #millionsmissing all over the world. It is my experience that I am sharing through dance, but I know its not only my experience. Hopefully it can contribute to an increasing empathy for the chronically ill now that most people have experienced isolation to some degree.”
Comments from her previous performances:
“Thank you for sharing your very powerful story! Art (dance) must be the only way to transmit the skinless and revealing soul-fullness. It is only through daring to meet the deeply personal that we can force through to the something that concern us all. You are a door-opener for others and a facilitator that makes it so that we can step up and unite in our common humanity. Beautiful, impressive and brave!”
– Jan Kjærgård, profession; social therapist
“Thank you for the performance. Tender, vulnerable, sad and comical-very diverse. Congratulations!!”
– Lisa Nøtteseter, profession; stageperformer freelance.
“Personally I thought it was a very powerful performance and was touched because of its story and theme and that it was so intensly personal. …You hear about drugs and children and parents, but when you see you telling the stories it is like seing you be there with him and your relationship and your powerlessness and devoted love to him as a child. These feelings and your empathy were painful and strong for me…Thank you again for your powerful and strong performance!”
– Sulekha Ali Omar, professions; stageperformer at the “Den Nasjonale Scene” the local theatre in Bergen, Norway
