Hoppsasa Skavank

Hoppsasa Skavank springs out from Martin Slaatto s passion for this movement; a passion with an endless number of variations and a fundamental part of several of his productions. His declared aim is for hops to become recognised in Norway.

With the production Hoppsasa Skavank Slaatto brings dance and card games. In the 18 cards of the red man is the start of a new movement: Transportation dance or TD, with "basic apparatuses" as stage design; such as the swing, the crutch, the carousel, the seesaw, the bike and the walking frame. With TD you move with ease or difficulty in time, age and from place to place, with whichever impediments or luggage you may have.

Since his Mann med motorsykkel R100CS* (The man with the motorbike R100CS)/Unannounced in 1998, Martin Slaatto has made his mark with 40 productions filled with impulsive ideas, confrontations and humour - often with an element of risk. Back then he made a ski-jump in the name of love, after having listened to instructions from former master jumpers by telephone. His jump resulted in the film Unannounced Jumper, awarded with the Norwegian movie award Amanda for best short film in 2000. When preparing for this jump he was practising throwing a red mitten into the air while running around in Oslo. While he ran past the bank Bien Sparebank, the bank happened to be robbed, and shortly after, Slaatto was arrested. Someone in the bank had observed his behaviour and found it suspicious.

In his release papers the following is written: "The suspect threw a mitten into the air. Playfulness is important in his work as an actor"! The artistic aim of Slaatto is to include poetry in daily life, perhaps one ought to add; a surreal vein of poetry, to show the necessary in the unnecessary and the vitality in the hopping. Art is a key to opening the segmented and closed rooms.

Martin Slaatto was educated as a dancer through the dance education of The Norwegian Opera (1976), with further education within dance and acting in London. As of 2011 he has recently finished his graduation as a tram driver, and dressed in red he has challenged conformity at a high and low level. He has been cycling on a tricycle among the treetops in the valley Maridalen and around the Central Station of Oslo with wings and a fox mask, he has lived inside a cable drum, invaded the façade of Oslo S, and gone skiing in Dakar, Senegal. He prefers outdoors arenas, but also performed at Dansens Hus in 2010, with his Pastillstupet* (The Pastille Dive), a staging of the image of the Norwegian pastille box called Brynhild saltpastiller.

Source:

BIT Teatergarasjen, autumn program 2011. 26.09.2011: http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no/article/409

*Not yet translated into English. The title within parentheses is the Norwegian title's literal meaning. As for the title Hoppsasa Skavank; it is a construct and can best be translated to something along the line of Jumpy-Jumpy Defect.