Crocodile, I Like The Way My Nails Look At Me
A crocodile jumps to the bathroom
A dance wrestles to be rolled
A carpet rests like a lake
A naked bicycle runs for the tram
A water bottle slips through the door
A dance wrestles to be rolled
A carpet rests like a lake
A naked bicycle runs for the tram
A water bottle slips through the door
The performance "Crocodile, I Like The Way My Nails Look At Me" explores the interplay between flow and non-flow, beauty and disruption. It navigates inconvenience and playfully interrogates the act of being seen. It is a dance work driven by sweating, shaking and stretching boundaries of imagination. What occurs in another world with a crocodile resting beside a lake of joyful tears while exposing one's flesh? "Crocodile, I Like The Way My Nails Look At Me" becomes an audacious space for experimentation – where vulnerability meets agency, and the dancing body defies expectation.
The research process of this Master in Dance project was guided by questions: What desire unfolds in juiciness? How can a fully charged movement resist momentum? What somatic and performative shifts occur when dancing when exposing flesh? How does imagination unfold in collaboration with and within the intimacy of dwelling in performative states?
Dance improvisation is the core of Yelena's practice which she carefully combines with video projections and dance notations in the form of choreographic notes. Yelena's work wouldn't exist without collaboration. "Crocodile, I Like The Way My Nails Look At Me" is dearly inspired by and co-worked with her friends and artists Sunniva Møen Rorvik, Nora Auerbach, Sigrid Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas, and Sólbjört Vera Ómarsdóttir. <3
Credits
Performance - Yelena Arakelow
Dramaturgy - Nora Auerbach
External supervisor - Kristin Helgebostad
Internal supervisors - Bojana Cvejić and Torunn Helene Robstad
Sound - Ása Kolbrún Ásmundsdóttir
Lights - Eirik Lie Hegre
Costume - Signe Vasshus
Technical team at KHiO - Kjetil Skåret, Are Skaanes Engebretsen, Tormod Fuglestad and Ronnie Tungland
Stage manager - Hanna Kristine Dybfest
Special thanks to
My dear classmates Antonia Harke, Emma Leah Culén Khei, Marte Brustad Melhus and Sigrid Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas as well as Jakub Ziemann, Tormod Tora Skår Midtbø, Clarinde Wesselink, Zsuzsa Rozsavolgyi, Nikolina Pristaš, Laura Lihua Nilsen, Lóa Björk Björnsdóttir, Elisabeth C. Gmeiner, Emil Kristoffer Gustafsson and Manos Saklas.
Accessibility and trigger warnings
Partial nudity, smoke and six bean bags are available each show.
An accessibility grid including trigger warnings will follow soon.
Shows
KHiO, Stage 1, Oslo, Norway
20.03.2025 18:45
21.03.2025 18:00
*This is a more relaxed performance* 22.03.2025 14:45*
24.03.2025 18:00
25.03.2025 18:45
*A more relaxed performance for "Crocodile, I Like The Way My Nails Look At Me" means: The intensity of light and sound is reduced, there is no use of smoke and the show is accessible for electric wheelchairs. Six bean bags are available for more comfortable seating. ATH: Partial nudity will remain as it is a crucial part of the performance. From 13:00-13:45, there is the opportunity for a touch tour of the stage guided by Yelena Arakelow. There is no need to sign up - just show up at 13:00. A self-made audio description will be available before the show via a QR code link to a SoundCloud file but equipment for listening is not provided.