Unchained Melody

In collaboration with Carte Blanche

In Unchained Melody, Mette Ingvartsen uses love songs from different eras as a musical anchor for the choreography.

The movement follows the logic of water: ripples spread between the dancers, undercurrents draw them in new directions or into a swirl before calm returns and the surface settles.

The dancers sing as they move, a physical practice that puts the breath into play: the voice shifts, the tone breaks. Ingvartsen works deliberately with strong emotional affects, and in the meeting point of song, feeling, and dance, the performers navigate an ever-changing emotional seascape.

For Ingvartsen, love is more than a feeling; it is a social and political force that can erode what is hard or loosen what once seemed fixed. Unchained Melody is a performance in which song, moods, and movement flow into one another like waves on the sea.

 

World premiere 28 May, during Bergen International Festival

Find tour dates and tickets here 

 

Carte Blanch is the Norwegian contemporary dance company based in Bergen. The ensemble of 14 dancers invited Mette Ingvartsen as a guest choreographer in 2026. Unchained Melody is the piece that emerged from this collaboration.