HORDE is a choreographic work by Ingri Fiksdal and Solveig Styve Holte that both through practical organization as well as artistic expression thematizes who can access art and artistic work nowadays. Motivated by a common interest for a larger diversity within all parts of the professional art field, Fiksdal and Holte have been engaged in discussions about who become artists and what artistic work is. At the moment, there is an increased awareness of representation of gender, sexual orientation, and cultural background within the whole field of art and culture. At the same time, there is still a major dominance of white, middleclass kids in all art education. Fiksdal and Holte are interested in who can imagine themselves as artists in the future and who can access professional art today. 

The making of the choreography HORDE takes shape as a paid summer job for nine teenagers between the age of 15 to 18, recruited in the Helsinki area. The project will give the young, performing participants salaries according to union rates, competence, experience, and a network that will strengthen their knowledge of contemporary art today and stimulate talent and eagerness to potentially orientate themselves towards art as a profession. 

HORDE premiered in October 2021 at the CODA Oslo International Dance Festival and has also been performed at the opening of the MUNCH Museum in Oslo. A new adaptation of the work was performed in Kristiansand in summer 2022. In 2023, Moving in November invited Ingri Fiksdal and Solveig Styve Holte to Helsinki and together a new adaptation with nine local teenagers and one professional dancer was produced. The project was carried out in the framework of the Helsinki Model project and in collaboration with Pihlajamäki Youth Centre and Kiasma Theatre. HORDE was performed in August in Pihlajamäki’s Kiillepuisto and in November in the frame of the festival programme in the Kiasma lobby.

Ingri Midgard Fiksdal is an Oslo-based choreographer with a PhD in artistic research from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Her research explores affect, perspective, privilege, and posthumanism, investigating the hegemonies of knowledge and power. She views choreography as a speculative fiction format that offers diverse understandings of body, gender, species, ethnicity, knowledge, and history. Fiksdal values the entanglement of practice and theory in her work, considering them equally important. Since 2020, she has been an Affiliated Artistic Researcher with CoFUTURES at the University of Oslo, which focuses on global futurisms beyond anglophone traditions. Fiksdal’s work has been shown at various international festivals and venues, including Obscene Festival in Seoul, Homo Novus in Riga, Kunstenfestival in Brussels, and Palais de Tokyo in Paris. 

Her work Diorama has been presented in Helsinki in 2021 at Hietaniemi beach in the frame of Moving in November. 

Solveig Styve Holte is a dancer and choreographer based in Oslo. She completed her MA in Choreography at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and is currently a Research Fellow there. Her research project focuses on exploring authorship in dance and choreography, using pre-existing materials and historical archives. Holte often collaborates with others to create performances for various settings, including museums, galleries, theaters, and outdoor spaces. In addition to HORDE, created in collaboration with choreographer Ingri Fiksdal, she has also worked on projects like Frå form til famling and Sixteen Dances. She has contributed to the anthology KOREOGRAFI/CHOREOGRAPHY and is part of the editorial team. 

Amie Mbye is a Norwegian-Gambian dance artist, choreographer and dance teacher based in Oslo and who works between Oslo, Paris, Barcelona and Dakar. She has both participated in and created projects ranging from battles and dance jams to artistic productions for stages, presented both nationally and internationally. 

Amie is the initiator and member of B16 dance collective. The collective consists of 20 dancers, actors, singers, poets and writers between the ages of 16 and 32 who work widely with dance; they do performance, facilitating workshops and talks for youth and young adults, organizing dance jams and battles. The collective represents a rich spectrum of dancers with the aim of creating safe spaces of opportunity for young people interested in the arts and, not least, expanding the horizons of what and who is represented in the dance field in Norway.

Sofia Charifi is a dance artist, performer and producer. She graduated from the University of the Arts Theater Academy from the dance arts education program in 2021 and she has worked in many different roles in the free field of art. Currently, she works as the coordinator of Ruskeat Tytöt ry. In her spare time, she tries to knit a sweater and takes singing lessons.

Alma Nordberg: I am a 16-year-old art lover. My main interests are dance and music, and I study at Sibelius high school in the music department.

Taika Fadte: Hi, I’m a 16-year-old from Helsinki, for whom dance is an important part of life.

Jia Macedo Pirttinen: Hi, I’m Jia, a 17-year-old high school student and my life mainly revolves around dance, school and the people who are important to me.

Metta Pietiläinen: Dance has a place in my heart and that is why I am grateful that I accepted this unique opportunity. With it, I can not only realize myself through dance and movement, but also get to know new people!

Meribel Kaljumets: I like riding motorcycles and I’ll be an animal caretaker when I grow up.

Wilma Lönnberg: I Like traveling and movies.

Juulia Erjanti: I love cats and listening to Stepa! I’m usually called Juju.

Ilo Bingham: I’m in the second year of high school and in my spare time I enjoy scouting and dancing.

Leila Airin Özbek: My ethnic roots are an important part of me and dance is my passion.