2025

In The Dance Gene, Vala brings together dancers from different generations in a performance where movement, storytelling, and music are interwoven into a living portrait of the development of Icelandic dance.

The dancers — Hany Hadaya, Krister Rognaldsen Pedersen, Rut Rebekka Hjartardóttir, and Snædís Lilja Ingadóttir — ranging in age from 20 to 60, share stories, memories, and influences that have shaped their artistic paths and perspectives.
The work highlights how the Icelandic dance community has evolved over the decades, shaped by a wide range of influences — from film and music culture to teachers, role models, and collaborative relationships within the dance field. Here, dance appears as a living weave of embodied experience and collective memory, continuously transformed by new generations of artists.

The Dance Gene builds on Valgerður’s earlier work with the Iceland Dance Company for its 50th anniversary, where she created a solo piece and sound installation based on the stories of dancers who have been part of the company since its founding. In this new work, she continues to explore dance through both social and personal memory — where stories and movement merge into a single living whole.

On stage, the past, present, and future of dance meet.

Lights: Cristina Agueda

Photos: Björgvin Sigurðarson @bjorgvin.sigur & from privat collection