A Viking solo project I have been developing since 2019 has now grown a new branch: a version created especially for children and Den kulturelle skolesekken (DKS) – Norway’s national programme bringing professional art and culture to schools.
The new version of Røtter was developed in collaboration with DKS Akershus through working proceses in Verdal and Oslo. Summer- Autumn 2026.
The process has given me the opportunity to explore what Røtter can become when the audience is children.
And how can I communicate the history, physicality and ideas of the Viking Age through dance and performance in a way that they like?
What can the children recognise in the Vikings – and what can the Vikings make us wonder about in ourselves?
A short snippet of choreography!
Thank you
A huge thank you to DKS Akershus for the trust, time, conversations and opportunities to explore what Røtter can be for children. You have given me a lot.
Thank you to Scenekunstbruket for additional financial support, and to Lorents Ryan for technical support and collaboration during the September development period.
Thank you to our test school for welcoming us and allowing us to try the performance with around 70 fifth-graders. Watching the children follow the story, laugh, wonder and get swept up in the performance was pretty special. I am excited to let the work continue to grow through encounters with more young audiences.
Thank you to Marthe, Hanne, Madelaine, Hanna and Karen Birgitte for your input, support and guidance throughout the process.
Thank you to Trøndersk Vikingfestival, Rune Aasen and Gjellestad Story for beautiful photographs and video material.
And thank you to my family, friends in Oslo and the hotels along the way for good food and good company.
And maybe also a thank you to SJ for getting me to and from Oslo without delays – especially appreciated when travelling ten hours by train each way because of my Viking shield and sword.
This version of Røtter was developed during 2026 and is currently being prepared for touring in Akershus in 2027. A first test performance was presented at Vesby School on 24 September 2026, with further touring scheduled for January and April 2027.
From Viking journeys to Røtter
I also want to acknowledge Follow the Vikings Project and Craig Morrison, who started my own Viking journey back in 2016.
Through Follow the Vikings, I travelled to around 20 different places across Europe connected to the Viking world, performing in a large-scale show and sharing a stori from the Viking Age ( Egil Skallgrimson from Iceland) with audiences along the way.
All the encounters, knowledge and people I met during those journeys planted a desire to create my own work – to explore more sides of the Viking Age through dance and other theatrical tools, in my own way. That journey eventually became Røtter. And now I get to bring it to children as well.
More than warriors
The Vikings were more than warriors. They were also craftspeople, traders, farmers, explorers and storytellers, living within societies with their own forms of democracy and social structures.
Røtter explores questions of history, courage and identity – while inviting us to look at the Viking Age from more than one perspective.
And what might our own Viking journey look like?
Can we go on many different journeys through life? What gives us strength when we meet resistance? What are we willing to challenge ourselves with? And what do we want to become good at – and how do we get there?
This spring, I look forward to bringing Røtter into schools, sharing more stories about the Vikings, exploring some of these questions together with the children – and, not least, bringing them plenty of fierce Viking energy and raw, physical dance.
Let’s… RO!
