CURRENT
PERFORMANCES
AND PROJECTS
Photo by Piotr Nykowski
These are events we offer, and projects we are currently involved in.
You’ll find a taster of our previous performances in our about page. In the gallery you can dive into pictures from both current and older projects.
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Celebration of Life
Celebration of Life is a performance beyond time, place and language. It’s the Feast of Fools, the Banquet of Buffoons, and the Carnival of Creatures – all in one! The pace will take your breath away, and the intense music will make you want to join the dance. Acrobats, jugglers, fire eaters, fakirs and dancers on stilts perform in an explosion of colour and rhythm. This performance turns any occasion into the special! It is an outdoor spectacle perfect for a nice space like a park, a square or a courtyard with plenty of space for the audience, the crowds will gather!
Photo by Olav Njaastad. Watch more pictures in the gallery!
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Fire Show
The relation between man and fire is as old as the story of man on earth. In this show the artists use the fire element as a poetic and dangerous partner. Their slow and wild dancing and their acrobatic movements are inegrating juggling, fire breathing, fire eating and the balancing of different fire elements. The rhythm and the music set the heartbeat to a never-ending connection between humans and fire.
The perfect winter show for any audience!
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The Dream of the Shaman
Ancient Nordic times considered people with skills of shamans and priestesses. They were believed to be able to transform into different animals in order to heal themselves and others. They lead ceremonies where the mythology was enacted, exposing the very depth of Nordic folklore. «The Dream of the Shaman» is inspired by these tales. The ritual celebrates life, nature and heritage, and is preferably held outdoors and at night. Often the finale of a workshop where the participants apply the masks and become part of the magic.
Photo by Kathrine Thude. Watch more pictures in the gallery!
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Brama Cooperation
In 2023, we will cooperate with the Polish theatre group Theatre Brama. The project is supported by EEA Norwegian Grants. Teatr Brama’s webpage for the project.
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Zanko
A circus fiction based on the life of the travelling entertainer Zanko. He, as his forefathers, have lived a life as a virety and circus artist. And this is the final performance where he tells the story of love, of life, of death, and betrayal, intertwined in a burlesque and romantic circus performance truer to the soul of the entertainer than any other circus show. A story that is set in an old and dusty circus, accompanied by Roma music, will leave you with a feeling of what it means to live life at the fullest.
Zanko: Per Spildra Borg | Director: Tim Dalton | Manuscript: Per Spildra Borg and Tim Dalton | Scenography: Tamás Bábics | Costumes: Maria Hayrumyan.
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Love and Contempt, Peace and War
A musical spectacle made as a cooperation between the polish theatre "Gardzienice" and "Stella Polaris".
Exploring the story of Świętosława - Mieszko's daughter and Olaf - Tryggve's son and about the 10th century, when a new world was being born. The rites of the Middle Ages, encounters between Vikings and Slavs, the formation of the identity of Europe and countenances of nations, the times of the great male and female rulers, crazy warriors and magnificent women.
Norwegian premiere was in 13 June 2022, Oslo - Kulturkirken Jakob. The Polish premiere was in October 2022 in Lublin - Meeting of Cultures Centre.
This performance came alive as part of the project: "Practicing History. Norway and Poland – rediscovering time and space. It’s founded by EEA Norwegian Grants.
Picture by Ignacy Tokarczyk
Photo by Kathrine Thude
The Polish Cultural Magazine «Pogranicza» on the parade and the Celebration of Life Stella Polaris did in «Festval Artystow Ulicy» in Szczecin July 2004:
«…Then African drums appeared. The audience, already excited by preceding events at once joined the dance. The little court was pulsating in the rhythm of stepping feet. And though they could not stop, they had to; no sooner did the musicians stop playing than a colorful jester parade, full of creatures like those in Bosch’s and Bruegel’s paintings emerged into the court singing and dancing. They took the audience onto an amazing journey along the streets of Szczecin’s old town, which in that instant transformed into an urban promenade pulsating with life energy.
This vibrant procession, which had not even for an instant slowed down its dynamic movement, inspired by the rhythmic sound of the drum and the sounds of accordion and trumpet, dancing jugglers, jumping acrobats, fire eaters and finally by a firework show became – I am not afraid to use this word – almost mystical for its partakers. From every nook and cranny, from each small courtyard, from behind each door vigilant spirits of the town watced them. It was to them as well as to some older people who gathered on balconies, and, who – I am not afraid to say it – had tears in their eyes that their beautiful and sad song, chanted almost voicelessly was dedicated to.
Then the procession, moved forward with even greater energy and together with the spectators, in number exceeding a thousand, formed a semicircle around the place of the elements, which culminated in a tempestuous ovation and party. The greatest asset of this Norwegian group is their ability to build up the audience’s group energy consciously and consistently. Although some circus elements are brilliantly employed in their performance, it is not, however, a circus-like show aimed at making the audience cheer. Rather, it is a theater which ‘must put its soul into its art,’ as Peter Schuman put it, to be able to lead the audience into such a state. Only then is it possible for people to believe and to celebrate this Huizingian, ludic and carnivalesque ritual together with the actors. Only then a true, beautiful encounter – like that in Szczecin – can happen.»