When the Bleeding Stops
Reykjavik City Theatre
Reykjavík Dance Festival, 2021
© Owen Fiene
When the Bleeding Stops
Choreography: Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir
Performance: Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir, Sveinbjörg Þórhallsdóttir, Ólöf Ingólfsdóttir, Kristjana Stefánsdóttir
and a group of local women.
Premiere in November 2021
Reykjavik City Theatre
Reykjavik Dance Festival.
When the Bleeding Stops is touring Europe 2022 - 2025.
About
When the Bleeding Stops is a 40 minutes empowering, feel good performance about injuries, age and menopause by choreographer Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir. In this work Lovísa addresses the silence and taboo that seems to engulf menopause in Western society, as well as her personal experience of aging as a dancer.
After suffering an injury, Lovísa was forced to reconsider her relationship with dance and the body. This process opened her eyes to the silence around menopause and her own lack of knowledge on the subject. She began researching and interviewing menopausal women, as well as posting an open invitation online where she invited middle-aged women to participate in her project. Before she knew it, she was working with a large number of middle-aged women from across Icelandic society.
When the Bleeding Stops invites the audience into a world of vulnerability, shame, empathy and humour. The work transports us into the privacy of the participants homes, and dives deep into the many layers of the female experience associated with menopause and invites us to laugh, cry and celebrate with these women.