Spring Forward Festival 2023

Produced by AEROWAVES

Icelandic dancer and choreographer Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir, an Aerowaves Twenty23 artist, brings her powerful piece WHEN THE BLEEDING STOPS to Dublin this April. Working with a group of women living in Dublin, Lovísa will host preliminary workshops remotely before arriving in the city and lead an onsite workshop with BROADREACH participants at CoisCéim‘s Studio in Fairview, Dublin 3. At this workshop, which takes place the day before her professional performance, the group will prepare to join Lovísa and her dancers on stage at Project Arts Centre.

ABOUT THE PIECE

As a woman in her mid-forties, award winning dancer and choreographer Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir has become fascinated by menopause and middle-aged women. In her performance work When the Bleeding Stops, she addresses the excruciating silence and taboo that seems to engulf this topic in Western society, as well as her personal experience of aging as a dancer.
 
After suffering an injury five years ago, Lovísa was forced to reconsider her relationship with dance and the body. This process opened her eyes to the silence around menopause and her own lack of knowledge on the subject. She began researching and interviewing menopausal women, as well as posting an open invitation online where she invited middle-aged women to participate in her project. Before she knew it, she was working with a group of women from a cross Icelandic society.
 

Since then, Lovísa has also worked with women living in Norway and Denmark.

WHEN THE BLEEDING STOPS invites the audience into a world of vulnerability, shame, empathy, and humour. The work transports us into the privacy of the participants’ homes, and dives deep into the many layers of the female experience associated with menopause and invites us to laugh, cry and celebrate with these women.

The BROADREACH activities for WHEN THE BLEEDING STOPS are open to those aged 40+
If you would like to take part please contact caoimhe@coisceim.com
 

More information on the project can be found at www.whenthebleedingstops.com

 

ABOUT SPRING FORWARD

Aerowaves Spring Forward Festival provides a platform for some of Europe’s most vibrant and promising choreographers to show their work to performing arts professionals and local audiences. The festival is broadcast to reach dance fans across the world. To find out more about what’s on the festival programme and to book tickets see aerowaves.org.

Photo: Owen Fiene