Iben Nagel Rasmussen

Iben Nagel Rasmussen is an actor, director, teacher and writer. She was born in 1945 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was the first actor to join Odin Teatret after its arrival in Holstebro in 1966. In 1981 she founded, parallel with her work at Odin Teatret, the group Farfa with actors from various countries. Farfa created a personal training programme and several performances. Since 1989 she has led The Bridge of Winds (Vindenes Bro), a recurrent yearly project with actors from Latin America and Europe who share their artistic experience and create performances. Since 1999 New Winds (Nye Vinde) a group of younger actors has existed and is working under the same principles. In 1986 Iben Nagel Rasmussen was given an award as “Best Actress” at BITEF in Belgrade, Jugoslavia, and in 1991 “Håbets Pris” (the “Prize of Hope”) in Denmark. Her professional experiences are presented in The Actor’s Way edited by Erik Exe Christoffersen and in the video documentary The Transparent Body edited by Claudio Coloberti. She has published four books: Breve til en veninde (Gyldendal, Denmark, 2011), Den blinde hest (Italian transl. Il cavallo cieco, Bulzoni 2006; Greek transl. Το τυφλό άλογο, Adonis 2022), Den fjerde dør (The Forth Door, Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck, Denmark 2012) and Book of the Winds (Odin Teatrets Forlag, Denmark, 2019) together with the photographer Francesco Galli, as well as several articles in journals such as Teatro e Storia and The Open Page. She is the author, director and actor of the performance Ester’s Book and is the only actress of the film Dressed in White, directed by Torgeir Wethal.

Performances
Kaspariana
Ferai
My Father’s House
The Book of Dances
Presenze e Figure
Come! And the Day will be Ours
Anabasis
The Million
Marriage with God
Brecht’s Ashes
Talabot
Rooms in the Emperor’s Palace
Itsi Bitsi
Fathers and Sons
Kaosmos
Inside the Skeleton of the Whale
Ode to Progress
Mythos
White as Jasmine
The Great Cities under the Moon
Andersen’s Dream
Ester’s Book
Don Giovanni all’Inferno
The Chronic Life
The Tree
Thebes

Performance Demonstrations
Moon and Darkness
The Whispering Winds

Theatrum Mundi performances
Four Poems for Sanjukta
Ego Faust
The Island of Labyrinths
The Jungle Book

Odin performances for children
J. S. Bach

Performances with Iben Nagel Rasmussen for other companies than Odin Teatret
The Land of Nod (directed by Cesar Brie, Farfa, Denmark)

Performances supervised by Iben Nagel Rasmussen
Alla Madre, alla Sorella, alla Figlia Dolce (with Daniela Piccari, Italy)
Asterion (with Guillermo Angellelli, Argentina)
Very Short Stories of Creatures… (with Jori Snell, Denmark)

Performances directed by Iben Nagel Rasmussen
Heridos por el Viento (with Farfa, international)
Brisas y Gnomos (street performance, with Farfa, international)
Den Grimme, den Grumme og den virkelig Dumme (Odin performances for children)
Sankt Hans Spil (with Vindenes Bro, international)
Krybbespil (with Vindenes Bro, international)
Thors Hammer (with Vindenes Bro, international)
Concert for voices and flute (with Vindenes Bro, international)
Høst Kantate/Autumn Cantata (with Nye Vinde, international)
Ancestors (with Nye Vinde, international)
Rejse Uden Navn (street performance, with Nye Vinde, international)
Van Gakk møder Spugna (with Sandra Pasini and Kai Bredholt, directed by I.N.R and Leris Colombaioni, 1999)
Alverdens Vinde/Worldwide Winds (concert, with Nye Vinde, international)
Stemmer i Vinden/Voices in the Wind (concert, with Vindenes Bro and Nye Vinde, international)
UR-NAT (with Vindenes Bro,Taiko and Teatret OM, Denmark)
Poesikaravanen (The Caravan of Poetry): a performance created for Holstebro Festuge 2011 (Festive Week), with songs, music and poetry reading in collaboration with Ulrik Skeel, Odin Teatret, Touria Hadraoui og Abdallah Zrika from Marokko, Francesco Agnello (residing in France) , Uta Motz (from Germany) and the Danish author and poet Thomas Boberg.
Kærlighedstæppet (The Carpet of Love): A performance created for the Holstebro Festuge 2014 (Festive Week) in collaboration with musicians Elena Floris (Italy) and Parvathy Baul (India).
Halfdansk Rapsodi (2017)

The Bridge of Winds

The Bridge of Winds is a pedagogical project directed by Iben Nagel Rasmussen since 1989.
The group consists of artists from Latin America, Europe and China.
Iben Nagel Rasmussen has gathered these students, not only to make performances, but to transmit her own theatrical heritage: the actor’s formation and the theatrical values, on which she has based her life as an actress.
The group meets every year in different places of the world. The work focuses on physical and vocal training; the creation of in- and outdoor performances, and so-called “barters”: cultural exchanges between The Bridge of Winds and local communities.
The main characteristic of The Bridge of Winds is its long-term duration, which allows a gradual development in depth. Another feature, is to bring together artists from various disciplines (music, theater, dance, fine arts) and from different cultures, making the group a multicultural and multidisciplinary melting pot, going beyond linguistic, artistic, and cultural boundaries.
The Bridge of Winds holds open meetings in collaboration with local theatres, as well as social and cultural institutions. The group also takes theatre to the streets, makes seminars, workshops, cultural exchanges, concerts, conferences, and photographic exhibitions.
During its 30 years of activity, the members of The Bridge of Winds have spread this theatrical heritage through their own artistic work and teaching.