½ Life investigates the survival of the body amidst a world of scientific research, data, and control. The performance hovers geographically at the edges of the Pacific Ocean - connecting nuclear super power USA, atomic survivor Japan and nuclear free New Zealand.

 A contemporary ritual to address our dormant nuclear nightmares. Dance and video artists Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad bring together an extraordinary collaborative team including composer and harpist Zeena Parkins, visual artist Emmett Ramstad, physicist Bryce Beverlin II and performer Takemi Kitamura and an ensemble of twelve local dancers.

On holiday the normal sequence of time unravels. Regular activities, chores and spatial awareness of ordinary places are deconstructed or completely altered. In this space of relaxing (or trying to), perception bends. Reality shifts. An adventure into the domestic space of others that pitches the performers all over the stage, under furniture, over each other and tilting precariously from bicycles. Video is used to geographically locate the piece, move us in time to other locations, provide live feed of hidden live moments and to create life sized video portraits that become dance partners.

Holiday House

75 min site work for 5-7 performers
An adventure into the domestic space of others where the audience is invited to travels into spaces throughout the house to witness the performance. They discover performers playing games, delivering lectures on the nature of space and black holes and pitching themselves under furniture, over each other, tilting precariously from bicycles and appearing on televisions wired to surveillance cameras all over the house.

GO

50 min for a public street 3 performers
Three simultaneous movement solos that begin at the same point on the streets of your city, take place along three intertwining trajectories and end at the same point for a very small audience. The performers would include Olive Bieringa, Otto Ramstad and a local guest artist. GO is an investigation of the ongoing journey between our inner and outer landscapes and the ecological entwinement of self, other, and environment. The work is an investigation of physical freedom in the urban environment. It is a practice of kinesthetic empathy with the city and its inhabitants.

Jump

10 min for 20 local artists 

This work is an experiment in endurance and decay. It is an attempt to track transformative consciousness and the autonomic nervous system. A context in which both active participant and active audience can become aware of their minds activity as they focus on a relatively singular series of events; focus, breath, physical sensation, boredom, sound, excitement, physical discomfort, joy, sweat, exhaustion.  

Site and Context Specific Commissions

We have developed numerous site and context specific projects and community commissions since 1998 from intimate solos for the street to large community dance works in train stations or harbors.  Some examples include Station/Stationary, GO and the award winning Lagoon.

Dance Films + Installations

We have nine short dance films and three installations available: Entreterritorios, Small Dance, plant, Holiday House, Nicollet Avenue, Dry Wash, Seawall, Wharepapa, Room. Please click on the titles for more information.