SOIL

In her first solo performance, dancer and choreographer Sarah Aviaja Hammeken explores the complexity of her own cultural background in both Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) and Denmark. Growing up outside of Greenland, the Inuit culture was always present for Hammeken when moving through the world. Her background brings with it a wealth of opportunity and while she embraces both cultures at different times, she is also sometimes left with the feeling of not belonging to either of them.

Often Hammeken’s contemporary dance performances poetically addresses the conflict of not being able to fully grasp your own languages, rituals, or traditions. Mirroring shifts in translation and self-perception, they ask when are you accepted into a culture and whose acceptance it is you are seeking. In particular, the language of Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) and the ongoing process of learning it is central to Hammeken’s ongoing development of SOIL, which is a bodily inquiry into communication, its power and ploys.

SOIL was commissioned by KW Institute for Contemporary Art and premiered during the Berlin Art Week 2024.