About
Marit-Shirin is a dancer with her base in Umeå/Ubmeje, Sápmi. She has a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from Stockholm University of the Arts and has worked professionally as a dancer in Belgium, Austria, Japan, Germany, Greece, Denmark, and Iceland since 2015.
Her artistic practice includes dance as a way of creating relation - especially our fragile relationship to earth. She aims to connect performative practices to theoretical methods, such as writing and researching through her own embodied knowledge as an Indigenous person. Other practices such as meditation deriving from a zen-philosophy is also a big part of her daily, bodily reflection, and has worked in Japan between 2017-2019 to study meditation and Aikido.
Through her research, practice, and international collaborations on her long-term project, Humans & Soil, Shirin has immersed herself in our relationship to the earth we walk on and decolonial relationships between Indigenous peoples and performing arts.
-
EDUCATION
2020 - 2021 - Stockholm University of the Arts M.A in Fine Arts specializing in International Performing Arts
2012 - 2015 - Stockholm University of the Arts (DOCH) B.A in Dance Performance
2010 - 2011 - Listaháskóli Íslands, Reykjavík. Contemporary Dance Programme
SOLO UTSTÄLLNINGAR/SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 - Solo performance at Weld
”Deleting White Spaces”2022 - “Firebird” Butoh digital performance, Sapporo, Japan.
2020-2022 - Improvised Dance Solos, Tic Tac Art Centre, Brussels
2020 - Solo performance at Dellie Maa, Indigenous Art & Film Festival, Tärnaby
2019 - “Humans & Soil” Solo version, Sapporo Pirka Kotan, Hokkaido, Japan
2019 - Odolabo おどらお, International Dance Festival, Osaka, Japan
2018 - L’argonne Circus Collective Studio, Brussels, Belgium.
2018 - “Humans & Soil” Solo edition, Globala Veckan, Linköping, Sweden
2018 - “The Female Samurai” ARTSPACE stift/Netzwerk Aks, Millstatt, Austria
2017 - “The Female Samurai” Folk & Kultur, Eskilstuna Sweden
2017 - “The Femaile Samurai” Kanna Fall Art Festival, Onishi, Japan
2017 - “The Female Samurai” Municipal Art Innovation Centre, Osaka, Japan
CHOREOGRAPHIC WORK
2023 - “Jarkelidh” Comissioned work by Riksteatern, Sweden
2022 - “of itself : in itself” National tour, Dance Net Sweden
2022 - “of itself : in itself”, Dansens Hus Stockholm, Sweden
2021 - “of itself : in itself” Comissioned work by Norrlandsoperan, Umeå, Sweden
2021 - “Come rain or shine, We will dance!” Dansprogrammet, Riksteatern Stockholm
2020 - Work-in-progress “of itself : in itself” Ubmejen Biejvieh, Samiska veckan, Umeå, Sweden
LECTURES
2023 - Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, Sweden
2022 - Co-lecture, Decolonizing Seminar with Thuy Nguyen, Royal Academy of Music Stockholm
2021 - Lecture/Panel discussion, ReThink Festival, with CEMiPoS, Liv Aira, Marika Renhuvud, Katazyna Pastuszak, Norrlandsoperan Umeå
2021 - Lecture, Humans & Soil, Deleting White Spaces, Weld Stockholm
2020 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Cullberg Dance Company ‘Explorations of Now’
2020 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Discourses in Dancing Democracy OSCO, Hannover
2019 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Barents Dance Council, Luleå
2019 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Sapporo School of Freedom, Hokkaido Japan
2019 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Såhkie - Umeå Sameförening, Umeå
2019 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Galleri Tegen, Stockholm
2019 - Presentation, Humans & Soil, Dellie Maa, Indigenous Art & Film Festval, Tärnaby
RESIDENCIES
2023 - SITE Sweden, Garage 29 Brussels with “No Friend but the Mountains”
2021 - Dansens Hus produktionsresidens, Stockholm
2021 - Norrlandsoperan, Dans i Västerbotten.
2020 - Norrlandsoperan and Dearna, Tärnaby, Dans i Västerbotten Umeå
2020 - Dansinitiativet, Luleå
2020 - NPO S-Air, Sapporo Artist In Residency, Japan
2020 - Riksteatern, Hallunda “of itself : in itself” Humans & Soil 2020 - Dans i Västerbotten, Folkets Hus Tärnaby
2019 - AIRY Artist in Residence, Yamanashi, Japan Humans & Soil 2019 - Tenjinyama Studios, Sapporo, Japan Humans & Soil
2019 - Northern Sustainable Futures, Moskosel, Sweden Humans & Soil
2018 - Ricklundgården, Saxnäs, Sweden Humans & Soil
2018 - ARTSPACE Stift/Netzwerk Aks, Millstatt, Austria “The Female Samurai” 2017 - Shiro Oni Studios, Onishi, Japan “The Female Samurai”
-
The aesthetics of Humans & Soil is a consequence of our re-membering
Our project connects researchers, activists, artists and international collaborators to recontextualize and reinvigorate Indigenous culture.
Humans & Soil is an artistic platform committed to decolonizing academic practices and revitalizing our ancient Indigenous relationship with the Earth. The project’s vision grew out of northern Sámi and Japanese Ainu perspectives. Conceived by choreographer and researcher Marit Shirin Carolasdotter in 2017, Humans and Soil has since grown into a platform that dynamically balances performance, research and activism across international partnerships. We have already collaborated with several regions in Sápmi such as Västerbotten, where Norrlandsoperan has recognised the project’s support of their Indigenous culture through its creative activity.
In Dearnan Saemienskuvle, Tärnaby, we worked with Sámi youth, reintroducing them to storytelling through dance and jojk. These youth highlighted personal relationships to birthplace and homeland from their everyday life. We have listened to Ainu and Sámi elders’s stories, dreaming of reconnection through language and place, their longing for a cultural reinvigoration through dance and music, to be bequeathed even stronger to future generations.
Today, Humans and Soil continues listening carefully to Indigenous peoples’ stories, conducting relevant research, participating in, conducting and hosting seminars. Simultaneously, we continue embodying and generating change in Humans’ relationship to Earth; through movement-based multimodal creative expression and active engagement in local indigenous and global environmental issues.
Humans and Soil networks internationally in support of the revitalization and spread of the Indigenous relationship with Earth. Nevertheless, we remain committed to the indigenous traditions of integrity and consensus engagement while nurturing that revitalization through collaborative and participatory art.