Combining performing arts and environmentalism, we set sail for hope, for action and for change
If action triggers action, can our art create a positive climate ripple effect across the sea?
Premiering July 15th 2022, we toured Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Norway during the summer of 2022 – with and on a sail ship from 1926, and powered by the wind.
Ripples is a contemporary circus performance about eco-grief and utopia, sailing across the Baltic Sea to inspire people to act for a more sustainable future. The performing arts company Acting for Climate joins forces with Festival Norpas (FI) and Hawila Project (DK) to bring people together for a transformative experience of a more sustainable today. The artistic director of the performance will be Hanne Friis, for whom the project combines her passions of performing arts and environment. “We challenge our times, inspiring people to act towards climate change, to reflect on how Humanity treats Nature. Let us sail around and enter the harbours and hearts of people”, she declares.
The tour sails from harbour to harbour with S/V Swallow, a two-masted wooden sailing ship from 1926. We set off from Denmark to harbours in Finland, Estonia and Norway, in which we play the performance Ripples and engage in local encounters on sustainability. Ripples experiments on creating a whole new standard of sustainability as touring artists and provides meeting points for collaboration and exchange with local audience. Swallow acts as a site-specific stage, accommodation and means of transport for the group.
Ripples invites you on board a voyage into the future, a mourning ritual for the past and to question the present. We will explore how to live in a balanced and just society of the future, and reflect this in our artistic expression in the present. Seven artists embody ecological grief and hope for the future within the ship’s magnificent framework. A magical universe of circus, dance, physical theatre, music and storytelling unfolds from aft to bow and all the way up to the top of the masts.
The inspiration for the music for Ripples comes from the ripples themselves: the vibrations that find resonances in us and between us; in our bodies and in sound. To the composer this means resonances as in acoustic feedback, which plays a big part in her music. She also experiments with ripples as tremolos of different speeds and explores how they interact with each other. From these starting points, the music has been created during a process of exploring climate change from many varying perspectives. The aim of the tour is to question the values our society is based upon and to inspire curiosity and discussions about sustainability in the present.
Team
| Director | Hanne Trap Friis |
| Artists and co-creators | Abigael Rydtun Winsvold, Emma Langmoen, Heidi Miikki, Lucie Piot, Ole Skovgård Dampe, Marie Binda, Max Behrendt |
| Project leaders | Abigael Winsvold & Emma Langmoen |
| Producers team | Federica Parise, Ronja Tammenpää, Irina Pleva, Ania Lewandowska |
| Composer | Annelie Nederberg |
| Costumes designer | Michiel Tange van Leeuwen |
| Rigging design | Matt Horton |
| Tour manager | Isabella De Judicibus |
| Recorded voices and text contributions | Samwel Ojijo (Kenya), Daniela Cubero Murillo (Costa Rica), Makau Jonah (Kenya), Yeonjoo Lee (South Korea), Zeineb Chermiti (Tunisia), Abhijith Nag Balasubramanya (India), Kenneth Owino (Kenya) |
| Sailing crew | In collaboration with Hawila Project (DK) and S/V Swallow |
Tour schedule 2022
*Click on partners and locations to see events and partners websites.
| July 15, 17 | HOLBÆK (DK) with Hawila Project |
| August 4-7 | TAALINTEHDAS (FI) with Festival Norpas |
| August 11-13 | HELSINKI (FI) with Dance Theatre Hurjaruuth |
| August 20-12 | SAAREMAA (EE) with Big Wolf Company and Estonian Contemporary Circus Development Centre |
| September 2-4 | COPENHAGEN (DK) with Foreningen Ofelia Plads |
| September 11-14 | TØNSBERG (NO) with Nøtterøy Kulturhus |
