Heidi Rustgaard
Lecturer in Choreography, Research Active
Dance
Biography
Heidi is a choreographer, dancer and curator. Since 2000, she has worked collaboratively as a choreographer and performer duo with Hanna Gillgren operating as H2DANCE, working between Norway, Sweden and the UK. In 2018, H2DANCE set up Fest en Fest, an international festival of expanded choreography.
Research Interests
Heidi’s research aims to resituate and reframe choreography and curation, exploring how they can move and subsequently move other things.
Currently, Heidi is busy with a series of choreographic works, titled Amplified Edition. This series seeks to queer the relationship between the body, sound and space toward activating and re-centring choreographic material which are otherwise situated in the background or hidden from view.
Her ongoing curatorial project Fest en Fest, thinks with choreography and its potential and seeks to rehearse new relations between artist, curators and audiences and choreographing alternative models for producing, presenting and congregating. H2DANCE continues to place the festival in new relations and spatial settings, enabling different forms of entanglements troubling current choreography definitions. It is as much about curating choreography as choreographing the curatorial.
Heidi recently finished her MRes in Advanced Practises with her research project; Queer Choreo Curation – off-score, wobbles and conviviality (2023). The project addresses forms of sociality and various kinds of social settings, working from highly scripted and unscripted forms, scores and off-scores as a way to queer and expand choreographic practises. Queer Choreo Curation formed part of Fest en Fest – LAB 2023 which was centred around the convivial as a way to think and experiment with questions of networks, relations, ecosystems, and infrastructures.
Qualifications and Background
1992-95: Trained as a dancer at London Studio Centre
2021: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
2020 – 23: MRes in Advanced Practised, Visual Cultures Department at Goldsmiths, University of London
Creative Outputs
Selected choreography:
Skinned (2022). Commissioned and performed by Emilyn Claid. Funded by The Arts Council of England.
Amplified Edition N ° 2 (2022). Funded by Nordic Culture Fund and Arts Council England. Co-produced by Rosendal Teater NO, Roehampton University, Firstsite/Colchester Arts Centre Colchester, Peterborough Museum/METAL Peterborough and Dance4 UK.
Vi & Oss & Andre (2021). Funded by Norwegian Arts Council – Fond for Lyd og Bilde. Co-produced by Sentralen Oslo NO
Amplified Edition (2019). Funded by Arts Council England & Nordic Culture Fund, The Norwegian Foreign Ministry. Co-produced by Rosendal Teater, DansiT and Black Box Teater NO, Dance4, MetalCulture & Earl Street Creative Space, Dansens Hus SE, and Dance All Year Along DK.
Strangers & Others (2017). Funded by Arts Council England, Arts Council Norway, Nordic Culture Fund, Region Värmland Sweden, Dance4 Nottingham UK and supported via South East Dance and Jerwood Charitable Foundation Dramaturg in Residence programme. Co-produced by Dance4, Laban Theatre and Metal UK, Nordic House IS, Region Värmland and Dansens Hus SE, Bergen Dansesenter and Liikelaituri FI.
STAGING AGES (2015). Funded by Arts Council England, Norwegian Arts Council, Swedish Arts Council and Region Värmland, Sweden. Co-produced by Riksteatern SE, DansiT NO, Trestle Arts Base, St Albans, DanceEast Ipswich, The Place London and Pavilion Dance South West UK.
SAY SOMETHING (children) (2014). Funded by SEANSE, SPENN, Norwegian Arts Council – Kunstløftet NO
DUET (2013). Funded by Arts Councils of England, Norway and Sweden, Region Värmland SE and Fond for Lyd og Bilde NO. Co-production DansiT NO, Studiotrade Cologne DE, Dans i Värmland SE, South East Dance and The Place UK. Supported by Escalator East to Edinburgh and The British Council Edinburgh Showcase. The audience vote winning Place Prize version was commissioned for The Place Prize for dance sponsored by Bloomberg in 2012.
SAY SOMETHING (2011). Funded by Arts Council of England, Nordic Arts and Culture Fund, Norwegian Arts Council, Swedish Arts Council and Buskerud Fylkeskommune, Fond for Lyd og Bilde NO, Säffle Kommun, Dans i Värmland SE and Arts and Grants Kensington and Chelsea UK. Co-produced by Choreodrome and Something Happening at The Place, Scenerommet, NO Union Scene NO, Medborgarhuset, Säffle SE, Devir CAPA PT, Hextable Dance, Laban Theatre, London Studio Centre and Goldsmiths College UK.
To Die For (2007). Co-production: Hedmark Teater NO. Funded by Statens Kulturråd and Värmlandsoperan SE and Royal Norwegian Embassy. Supported by Laban Theatre and Greenwich Dance Agency UK
På Gränsen (2005). Co-production Dans i Värmland and Värmlandsoperan SE.
COW the udder way (2004). Shrinking Cities, reinventing urbanism competition. Funded by German Federal Cultural Foundation. Winning entry.
Silent Movie (2004). Funded by The Arts Council England, London and Embassy of Sweden. Supported by Laban.
Curation:
FEST EN FEST – LAB (2023). Co-production with Sadler’s Wells and Dance Umbrella UK. Funded by the Nordic Culture Fund, The Royal Norwegian Embassy London, The Swedish Embassy London and The Finnish Institute.
FEST EN FEST (2022). Funded by Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of Swedish London, Embassy of Iceland and the Finnish Institute. Partnering with APT Gallery, NO Format gallery, Sadler’s Wells, Trinity Laban, VSSL, Firstsite og Cambridge Junction UK.
FEST EN FEST – PERFORM EUROPE (2022). Feminist Futures Towards antiracist and intersectional stages. Funded by Perform Europe, EU-funded project.
FEST EN FEST (2022). Funded by Arts Council England, Embassy of Sweden London, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of Iceland, Finnish Institute, Cambridge Junction. Partnering with APT Gallery, No Format Gallery, VSSL, Trinity Laban, Cambridge Junction, Sadler’s Wells, Roehampton University, Firstsite, Goldsmiths University of London
Fest en Fest – YOUTH – FÔLEGO (2022). Funded by Iceland Norway Lichtenstein Grants, EEA Grants Norway and Portugal. Partnering with Academia de Produtores Culturais Lisbon.
Fest en Fest – LAB (2021). Funded by Arts Council England, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of Sweden, London Contemporary Dance School, Roehampton University and Cambridge Junction.
Fest en Fest (2020). Funded by Arts Council England, Vision Mixers, Nordic Culture Fund, London Contemporary Dance School, Embassy of Sweden, Royal Norwegian Embassy Supported by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Cambridge Junction, London Contemporary Dance School, Goldsmiths University of London, Colchester
Arts Centre, Roehampton University, Gaff@The Fuel Tank, Shapes Lewisham
Fest en Fest (2018). Funded by London Contemporary Dance School, Opstart Nordic Culture Fund, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of Sweden
Grants
2017: Artist International Development Fund Arts Council England
2015: Miscellaneous grant from Arts and Culture Norway
2012: Miscellaneous grant from Arts and Culture Norway
2010: Miscellaneous grant from Arts and Culture Norway