Iceland Dance Company: The best of darkness

Darkness is warm. It is all around us. Darkness is a place where we can be quiet and sleep. Visit the land of dreams or return to your mother’s womb. Be vulnerable. But darkness is also terrifying, the realm of nightmare and loneliness. The domain of hungry ghosts in search of something to feed on and find relief in. In search of the light that casts shadows on others, they are never satiated, trapped in a roaring vacuum, in a storm that keeps them fighting non-stop.

The Best of Darkness is the final piece in a series of four works exploring the human body’s vulnerability in the absence of light. The pieces were created in collaboration, with music by Sigur Rós and dancers from the Icelandic Dance Company. The first in the series, At Dusk, We Embrace, was premiered in the winter solstice of 2017, in the context of the Norður og Niður Festival. The second, Life in the Undergrowth – a video installation made in collaboration with Pierre-Alain Giraud, was presented at the opening of the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival in February 2018. It was screened on two large oil tanks. The third piece, Variations On Darkness, was specially created for the bright space at the Reykjavik Art Museum and introduced at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in June 2018. The Best of Darkness was premiered at the contemporary performance festival Everybody’s Spectacular in Reykjavik, November 2018.

Erna Ómarsdóttir and the Icelandic Dance Company are returning to the Arriaga Theatre with this work inspired by the darkness and vulnerability of the human body.