A performance by Harald Beharie, which takes shape as a ritual in the forest.

Undersang is a tapestry of opulent configurations, soaked in a shimmer of extravagant gestures. Here mythologies, romanticism and science fiction converge, revealing a world of ancient powers.

Placing Afro-Nordic and Asian-Nordic diasporic narratives in the forest, Undersang weaves blackness, nature and dissonance as a strategy of empowerment. Sparking questions about what it means to belong. Undersang is queer ecology in the making: it uses extravagance, joy, and romanticism as a site for refusal, for reclaiming time. Looking beyond the idea of ownership, it seeks a fertile ground for healing, for lament and for celebration.

Harald Beharie (Oslo) is a Norwegian-Jamaican performer and choreographer. Harald's choreographic practice is collaborative voyages, navigating through realms of ambiguity and phantasm, punctuated by themes of deconstruction, hope and uncertainty, disinterest and emotional intensity.

They hold a special interest for the DIY and the vulnerability of being in the unknown. Beharie is interested in how the body can function as a motor for dramaturgy—a force in itself that transforms through practice. In his works Batty Bwoy and Undersang—he has engaged with monstrosity as a tool for empowerment. By playing with disgust and transgressive energies, he challenges established bodily narratives about the Black body. He allows ritual to be the transcendent force within his practice, opening up to the unknown—the clumsy, the uncanny, and the awkward in-between spaces where understanding slips, and new possibilities emerge.

In 2023 Beharie won the Hedda prize for “best dance production” for the performance “Batty Bwoy” and in 2024 the “Undersang” won the Norwegian Critics prize 23/24.

Harald’s website: haraldbeharie.com/