While at Bergen Kunsthall Live Studio, Naomi Schouten will research and develop a solo performance project, attending to emotional suppression as a mechanism of continuation. Titled The world always keeps on spinning?, the project approaches the moment the body begins to distance itself from what it carries.
Schouten explores choreographic material of suppression: the ways a body remains whole while being emptied, the ways it continues to respond while attention drifts elsewhere. In a time marked by crisis and constant exposure to global violence, continuation can become a default state. Whatever happens, the world keeps spinning.
The performance does not tell a single story of suppression, but invites you to witness its traces and construct your own. Are you able to see through it? Through the body, the project experiments with what is lost, and whether what remains can still be called presence. Amid the cracks, the work gestures toward a longing for connection.
BIOGRAPHY
Naomi Gabriëla Schouten is a Dutch dance artist, performer, and teacher. Deeply moved by music and performing from a young age, she began her training at ArtEZ’s pre-education program at age 10. She earned her BA in Dancer/Maker at ArtEZ University of the Arts, where her passion for improvisation and movement research got space to grow.
Naomi performed with Blackbirds (2021–2022) under Dalton Jansen.
As a maker, she co-created have a seat with Mireia Varón, which won the Audience Award at Café Theater Festival Arnhem in 2022. The duet toured across several Dutch venues in 2021/2022. She danced with Cullberg (2022–2023), performing works by Jefta van Dinther, Alma Söderberg, Halla Ólafsdóttir, Hooman Sharifi, and practiced Deborah Hay’s work. She also collaborated closely with Jeanine Durning. In 2023–2024, she joined Carte Blanche, Norway’s national contemporary dance company, performing works by Eszter Salamon, Elle Sofe, Roza Moshtaghi, Fredrick Gravel, and Tori Wrånes. Naomi also worked with Astrid Boons, Keren Levi, Caroline Finn, Maciej Kuzminski, Eva Karczag, Sally Dansgezelschap Maastricht, The Movers and Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson.
She strives to create spaces that invite reflection, dialogue, and emotional awareness, reminding people of our shared humanity. She imagines a world where people listen not to respond, but to understand; where empathy and openness guide communication. Through movement, music, and emotion, she seeks to awaken that same sense of listening and connection in audiences, opening space for new ways of feeling and relating.