Choreography and dance: Filiz Sızanlı

Dramaturgy: Eylül Fidan Akıncı

Light: Eirik Brenne Torsethaugen

Local production: Taldans, Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality

Special thanks to: Eskişehir Aktif Yaşlanma Kolektifi, Mustafa Kaplan, Canan Yücel Pekiçten, Sair Sinan Kestelli, Güneş Terkol

Premiere: March 2022, Multiplié Dance Festival, Rosendal Teater, Trondheim, Norway

“Like a rolling stone” focuses on the choreographic echoes of aging. In the participatory part of “How to. A score”  Sızanlı came together with non-dancers age 65+ exploring creative ways of moving and caring collectively. Over time, this community embodied the transformation of the self, body, and voice – how it can take space even at the stage of life that is shaped by the apprehension towards death and limited by its futurelessness. She explores novel patterns such as “control without control” and “compressed and oppressed potentials” in the aging body.

Which part of the body ages first?
Our heart, our eyes… Is there a sequence for this?

How a society builds the body, how a sense of community is formed in the body, how the community balances its rhythm and how this rhythm reflects on the body. 

I couldn’t stand where I stood, now I forgot to walk. 
We used to gift things we made ourselves.
The trees are coming into my body. They get into my breath.
If you could go back in time, what would you say to yourself? Respect your body, live fearlessly, live without an apartment.

How to. A score
Mia Habib Productions

how to walk, how to touch, how to fall, how to rise, how to trust,
how to hope, how to dream, how to fight, how to change, how to surrender

HOW TO.  A SCORE is a macro-solo consisting of several stand-alone solos, based on a choreographic community and performance score developed by Mia Habib in collaboration with Janne-Camilla Lyster. Six prominent dance artists from six different countries have been invited to work with the score independently. They have worked with local communities in their respective countries and thereafter developed a solo.

In Oslo they will all meet for the first time, performing at the Dansens Hus and Black Box Teater. 

Julie Nioche (Nantes, France), Thais Di Marco (São Paulo, Brazil), Tommy Noonan (Saxapahaw, USA), Filiz Sızanlı (Eskişehir, Turkey), Thami Hector Manekehla (Soweto, South Africa) and Mia Habib (Oslo, Norway).

The score is based on Habib´s previous piece How to die – Inopiné, a transdisciplinary investigation on ecological grief, cultural panic and a feeling of collapse.

Besides the solo performances, the public is invited into a living archive. The living archive, spatialized by Liam Al Zafari, gives an insight into the score and the community work in the dance artist’s respective countries. It includes traces, memories, and tokens from the processes that can be seen and accessed by the audience in various multimedia formats.

“How to solo with this community?
How to lift this community and make it solo together.”

General Credits of How to. A score 
Artistic concept: Mia Habib
Choreographic score: Mia Habib and Janne-Camilla Lyster 
Solo and research project by the following dance artists:
Premiere at Multiplié (Trondheim) in March 2022: Filiz Sizanli (Turkey), Thami Hector Manekehla (South Africa)
Premiere at TOU (Stavanger) in May 2022: Tommy Noonan (USA), Thais Di Marco (Brazil), Julie Nioche (France)
Premiere (Oslo) in November 2022: Mia Habib (Norway)
Scenography of the living archive: Liam Al Zafari
Intern (Nordplus): Sanna Hirvonen
Score design: Camilla Skibrek
Score advisor: Chrysa Parkinson
Producers MHP: Elisabeth Gmeiner, Grethe Henden
International relations manager MHP: Siri Leonardsen
Produced by Mia Habib Productions
Local producers/managers: Firat Kuşçu (Pre-production, Turkey), Tetembua Dandara (Brazil), Stéphanie Gressin (France), Caitlyn Swett (USA)
Local co-producers: Taldans (Istanbul, Turkey), Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality (Eskişehir, Turkey), Statement Dance (Soweto, South Africa), Culture Mill (Saxapahaw, North Carolina), Association d’Individus en Mouvements Engagés (Nantes, France), Interkulturelt Museum /coFUTURES (Oslo, Norway)
Co-producers in Norway: DansiT, RAS and TOU Scene, Dansens Hus, Black Box Teater and BIT Teatergarasjen Supported by The Norwegian Arts Council and Nordic Culture Fund – Globus Opstart

“How to. A score” of elderly people in public spaces

Past Performances
March’ 2022 / Multiplié Dance Festival, Rosendal Teater, Trondheim, Norway
November’ 2022 / Dansens Hus, Oslo, Norway