Fleshy Thud presents Oskorei

Oskorei is the final event in a year-long series of dance programs created by Ryan Kerr and his company Fleshy Thud. Interpreting the Norse story of Ragnarök – the “final destiny of the gods” – this fable tells the story of a great battle that results in the death of powerful Norse gods, and the submersion of the world in water. The world resurfaces anew, the surviving gods meet, and the world is repopulated by two human survivors.

In 2004 Peterborough composer and musician Ian Osborn – well known for his dark, romantic, rhythmic and bass-driven sound – set out to compose a score from Norse mythology “without sounding like Led Zepplin or Finnish death metal”.  Using his signature technique of distorting and looping the voices of wild animals into evocative sounds, Osborn then created a hybrid incorporating the vocals of local artists Brian Mitolo, Brian Sanderson, Jill Staveley and Sarah Follet into the score he named Oskeri. As his project drew to a finish, the 2004 flood of Peterborough hit, completely submerging the Peterborough Arts Umbrella along with Osborn’s studio. Most of his works were destroyed, but by some luck of the gods the Oskeri tapes survived – and have waited five years to return to the light.

Now in 2010 Peterborough dance and theatre stalwart Ryan Kerr has resurrected Osborn’s soundscape to create a new dance work.  Kerr has taken the symbols of Norse runes to pattern physical gestures, while incorporating his contemporary ideas of religion, science and politics in the retelling of this cyclical story.

Dancers and sounds collide in this story of order and chaos, destruction and rebirth, the end of the old world beginning anew. An appropriate theme for both the aftermath of the 2004 flood, and as the final dance performance in the Market Hall prior to its renovations.