Icelandic lullaby jumping-off point for debut dance work

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Don’t sleep on the latest work from Winnipeg dance artist Alex Elliott, even if it is based on a haunting Icelandic lullaby.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2025 (452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don’t sleep on the latest work from Winnipeg dance artist Alex Elliott, even if it is based on a haunting Icelandic lullaby.

Let’s not stay awake through dark nights is a translation into movement of Sofðu unga ástin mín, a folkloric song of horrific sacrifice that traces back to the true story of Halla, who, while on the lam with a sheep thief named Eyvindur, is said to have serenaded her three-year-old daughter, Tota, before pushing her over the edge of a waterfall.

Not exactly soothing, but during a one-month residency in Rejkjavik in 2023, Elliott, who has Icelandic heritage, was emotionally affected enough to use the lullaby as a basis for the first full-length piece of contemporary choreography in her 25-year career.

Pablo Riquelme photo
                                Alex Elliott is premièring her first full-length piece of contemporary choreography.

Pablo Riquelme photo

Alex Elliott is premièring her first full-length piece of contemporary choreography.

Her research led her to Fjalla-Eyvindur, a popular theatrical adaptation by Jóhann Sigurjónsson that brought the lullaby to European audiences in 1911.

Eager to use the human voice and the Icelandic language as source material, Elliott began a two-year process of project development, which included an exploratory performance during the 2023 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.

The executive director of Young Lungs Dance Exchange and the founder of the performance series Art Holm, Elliott saw in the story the potential for a movement-based exploration of human vulnerability, courage and the difficult choices made under otherworldly pressure.

Last year, Elliott brought together a group of dancers to devise, and later record for posterity, the stormy selection during a four-week residency at Théâtre Cercle Molière. In May, a group of five dancers huddled around a laptop at the Rachel Browne Theatre, trying to remember how to climb the mountain.

“I keep thinking that I’m you and you’re me,” said Neilla Hawley, a feeling echoed by Justine Erickson.

Pablo Riquelme photo
                                Let’s not stay awake through dark nights features five dancers.

Pablo Riquelme photo

Let’s not stay awake through dark nights features five dancers.

That’s not a mistake: in Elliott’s precise, tension-based choreography, the human bodies on stage blend into each other. At times, Elliott, Hawley, Erickson, Emma Beech and Andres Jimenez Mejia wind themselves into knots, pressing on one another in order to remain fixed in place.

Dressed in identical tunics by Brenda McLean, it’s easy to forget who’s who.

Then, like shifting glaciers sped up by timelapse, they break apart, leaping over one another before fighting against the elements to reconvene in some form of spiritual afterlife.

The sound design, a concoction by Elliott, Adrian Berry and Dasha Plett, conveys restlessness and defies comfort. As they move through the piece, the dancers often seem propelled by gale-force winds, spread across the map of the stage like scattered seeds.

Elliott’s piece, which was dramaturged by Ali Robson, will run at Théâtre Cercle Molière from today to Sunday, with each performance including a companion piece by Indigenous-Icelandic artist Victoria Perrie developed in response to Let’s not stay awake.

Pablo Riquelme photo
                                Neilla Hawley floats through the air.

Pablo Riquelme photo

Neilla Hawley floats through the air.

Tickets are $25 or pay-what-you-can at alexandraelliottdance.com.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

Ben Waldman

Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.

Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Icelandic lullaby jumping-off point for debut dance work

Ben Waldman 3 minute read Preview

Icelandic lullaby jumping-off point for debut dance work

Ben Waldman 3 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025

Don’t sleep on the latest work from Winnipeg dance artist Alex Elliott, even if it is based on a haunting Icelandic lullaby.

Read
Wednesday, Jun. 11, 2025

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

David Sanderson 7 minute read Preview

For newcomer pizza purveyors, it’s all about crafting solid foundations

David Sanderson 7 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

A recent poll conducted by an Internet-based market-research firm determined that close to 20 per cent of people eschew their leftover pizza crust.

Some argued that the residual crust lacks flavour. Others submitted that it’s too hard or crunchy to enjoy sans toppings. Given that information, what are we to make of Crusty Craft Pizza, a five-month-old takeout spot whose owners are so confident in their European-style pizza crust that they’ve chosen to highlight it in their business moniker?

Whenever somebody informs them they don’t like pizza crust, their response is, well, they haven’t tried theirs, says Oleksii Samokvhal, who together with his wife, Iryna Mehedyn, opened Crusty Craft Pizza in early April, at 1311 Day St. in Transcona.

“It’s thin in the middle, with raised edges we hand-form ourselves,” says Mehedyn, a native of Ukraine who, like her Kyiv-born husband, relocated to Winnipeg to escape the conflict in their home country.

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

(Un)friendly competition

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

(Un)friendly competition

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Yesterday at 5:26 PM CDT

REGINA – Jermarcus Hardrick knows exactly what kind of battle he is in for on Sunday in the 61st edition of the Labour Day Classic.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders right tackle has ample experience lining up opposite Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive end Willie Jefferson, both as teammates and opponents during the past decade and change.

In this pivotal matchup between Prairie rivals jockeying for position in the CFL West Division, this head-to-head battle in the trenches figures to be must-see TV.

“Willie is one of my best friends, one of the best players in the league. It’s amazing to see what he’s doing on film, what he’s always done on film,” said Hardrick, who spent eight seasons with the Blue Bombers before joining the Roughriders in 2024 as a free agent. “With the way that you know he plays and what he can do to a team with his energy and knowing that’s on the other side from you all game, that’s a big challenge that you look forward to.

Read
Yesterday at 5:26 PM CDT

$8.7-million detox centre called ‘high-priced drunk tank’

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Preview

$8.7-million detox centre called ‘high-priced drunk tank’

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

The new facility to detain people in a drug psychosis for up to 72 hours is operating the way it should, the government said Friday, even though just 26 people have been held for that purpose since it opened.

“The (protective care centre) is doing what it’s meant to do: support people, meet them where they’re at, provide a caring environment,” Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith said after updated data were posted online.

The vast majority of those detained at the 20-room facility at 190 Disraeli Fwy. were recovering from alcohol intoxication, the update shows.

In total, 4,425 people were detained from the time the site opened on Dec. 2, 2025, until June 30, for an average of less than five hours.

Read
Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

Career, domestic shake-up could bode well

Maureen Scurfield 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I gave a big “present” to my husband this summer and it backfired royally.

My gift? He was free to work overtime without family concerns for the whole summer, to give the big boost to his business, which he needed badly. My newly-retired parents were happy to keep us at their cottage for the summer, and have the grandkids close to them. My dad stood in as the active on-site father figure, and he loved it! This was a break I know my husband never thought he was going to get, after marrying me and having kids right away.

I thought his work dream these days was to go from a medium to a major competitor in his building field! Summer is the biggest money-making time for him, so I really wanted to support him in that.

But a major shock was waiting for me at summer’s end! My husband wants to go back to university, first part-time and later full-time. And he needs me to go back to my career! Another shock? He’s already spoken to my parents behind my back!

‘Quite a journey’: dozens move into transitional housing downtown

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Preview

‘Quite a journey’: dozens move into transitional housing downtown

Carol Sanders 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 4, 2026

Dozens of residents have moved into transitional housing units in a former university building in downtown Winnipeg.

Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said 42 residents have moved into suites on the third and fourth floors of a seven-storey building previously owned by Providence University College and Theological Seminary. There will be space for as many as 118 people who were in encampments or otherwise homeless.

The remaining units under renovation are expected to be ready and occupied in the coming weeks, Smith said.

“This has been two years in the making,” the minister said at a media event with residents, staff, neighbours and supporters. The building cost the province $24.4 million to purchase and renovate.

Read
Friday, Sep. 4, 2026