Johanna Wieser, Trondheim 2023

I spend my last internship in Trondheim, Norway. Working at DansiT, Koreografisk Senter in September 2023 was amazing. They gave me a warm welcome and I started working right away. DansiT shares their office space and the whole premises (stages, etc.) with Rosendal Teater. So, I also worked with the crew from Rosendal.
The first event I worked on was “Fæst for byen” that was a huge “neighbourhood party” with different DJs. People really enjoyed themselves, dancing and eating food provided by the theatre. I worked at the food station and learned the first curious thing about Norwegians. They love to eat porridge.
The next performance was a couple of days later, called “Butch is a Butch, is a Butch”. I helped the technicians doing the setting up. The technician who was with the company gave me a lot of insight into his work and it was fascinating. I helped setting up the lighting, adjusting it and I even programmed some positions. I also assisted the technicians in disassembling everything after the event. They were amazing. One of them always used to say – the artists were not even off stage yet – “let’s tear this crap down”.
During “DansiT Salong” I assisted the producer and the technician with the setup of the event. I did the same for “Læven”, a children’s festival. I also was an assistant to the performances “Risle Rasle” and “Manndýr” who played during the festival. That was really nice.

I very much enjoyed working with the different artists. And it was really funny too, because the artists were from Iceland and knew my last employer Friðrik Friðriksson. He was the leader of Tjarnarbíó theatre in Reykjavik while I worked there during my ERASMUS+ internship in 2021!

I also painted signs and carried out various other tasks during the festival. Decorating the venue for different occasions was always fun and putting up posters all over the city in the rain was a challenge. I also attended some meetings for instant to discuss several events.

Norway is a beautiful country, and I got the opportunity to see a lot of Trondheim and the countryside. The landscape is amazing: glaciers, fjords, lakes and mountains … you have everything once you step out the door. It was really cold most of the time but beautiful. Also, there are a lot of great museums; the setup is in general so much more detailed than in most museums I know from home. For example, at the Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum, they put up walls and even build a small boat for children. It was like a maze and every corner you took there was something new to explore.

I really enjoyed my time at DansiT. Everyone was so friendly and always pleased to help, I definitely would work there again.