Musical & Performance

Do you want to sing, dance, and immerse yourself in a role?

In Musical and Performance, you can find your voice, your expression, and your creative power. For many, the year in Musical and Performance becomes an enriching experience, for others it becomes a step towards further education in performing arts.

Course content

In Musical and Performance, you get to express yourself and become confident on stage! We delve deep into the musical genre, and regardless of your level, you’ll find suitable challenges where you are. Your voice, your expression, and your creative power play a role in everything we do in this program – together we create experiences!

Singing and Acting Technique
Process from Idea to Performance
Text and Script Development
Jazz Dance Technique
Character Development
Expression and Physical Performance
Development of Visual Effects
Collaboration and Leadership

The teaching

In the musical program, you’ll delve deep into singing, dancing, and acting. Regardless of your level, you’ll get suitable challenges, and everyone becomes confident and free to express themselves on stage. You’ll learn singing technique, physical expression, and role interpretation, with weekly jazz dance training. We have a large selection of costumes in our costume room. You’ll get great opportunities to explore the musical genre – songs, scripts, costumes, sets, makeup, music, directing, and choreography are some of what we work with from idea to performance. Together we create experiences!

Projects and Performances

We have several projects and performances at the school throughout the year. Chicago, Matilda, Lion King, HAIR, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, and Hamilton are some of the musicals that have inspired us. Sometimes we perform entire musicals, other times we have smaller projects based on musicals or themes we find exciting to work with. We are creative, collaborate, create, rehearse, and perform – for friends and family at school, and often for other folk high schools and audiences on tour or in Bergen city.

Singing

We create safe and good frameworks for precise vocal development in groups and individually. The vocal technical work is based on Estill Voice Training, as well as acting-technical voice training. Estill Voice Training is a good and functional tool for singing with different vocal qualities that are especially useful for working with the musical genre.

Acting

At the beginning of the year, we focus on theater games, physical movement, body language, interaction, and improvisation. This provides a good foundation for acting training and group feeling in class. We work with character development, and the acting technical work strengthens our expression and delivery in performing texts, songs, and dance.

Dance

Dance is an important element in the musical genre. Jazz dance and ballet are therefore on the schedule every week, led by dancer and pedagogue Adeline Eikanger from Bergen. All dance training and choreography is adapted to your level – the most important thing is that you experience the joy of dancing!

Guest instructors

The year will offer instruction from skilled teachers and inspiring guest instructors.

Adeline Eikanger from Bergen has weekly dance classes in the musical program. Adeline is educated from the dance program at Bårdar Academy in Oslo. She has extensive experience as a freelance dancer and has participated in many major productions such as Grease at Oslo Spektrum, Eurovision Song Contest, and the dance performance Jazz on Jazz at Edderkoppen in Oslo. In Bergen, she works as a teacher at Bergen Dance Center. Adeline always looks forward to meeting the class at Åsane FHS and creates great dance joy among the students.

Study Trip: Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, and London

In the spring, we go on an Interrail trip through Europe. On the journey, we’ll have some exciting experiences together and loads of inspiration from performances and workshops with professional stage artists. A plan for the study trip might look like this:

Suggested day-by-day program:

Day 1: Train from Bergen to Oslo - experience in Oslo
Day 2: Train from Oslo to Copenhagen - experience the city by night
Day 3: We explore Copenhagen – guided tour and performance
Day 4: Train from Copenhagen to Berlin – experience the city by night
Day 5: We explore Berlin – workshop and performance
Day 6: We explore Berlin - workshop and performance
Day 7: Train from Berlin to Amsterdam – experience the city by night
Day 8: We explore Amsterdam – train Amsterdam to London
Day 9: We explore London – guided tour and performance
Day 10: We experience London – workshop and performance
Day 11: Make your own London day – performance
Day 12: We return to Norway – flight from London

Subjects in the program

Vocal Technique
Jazz Dance
Expression
Acting Technique
Creative writing
Choreography
Costume Making

Makeup and Styling
Improvisation
Script Work
Yoga & Relaxation
Harmony Singing
Role Interpretation
Directing

Program Teacher Karina Opdal

The leader of Musical and Performance is Karina Opdal. She has education from the Musical Theater and Artist Program at Bårdar Academy in Oslo, and has studied acting in London and music at the university in Bergen. After a year of teacher training in theater at the Theater Academy in Oslo, Karina got her first experience teaching at a folk high school, which she found incredibly rewarding and meaningful. Her greatest wish for the students in the program is for them to experience the joy she herself has had in working with performing arts, both as a creator and performer on stage.

This is what the students say

My year at folk high school gave me time to breathe and try new things. I got to explore what I want and need, and develop my independence. The Musical and Performance program gave me the opportunity to experience and try out so much new within theater and acting. Karina is a dedicated and caring teacher who creates a space where you can challenge yourself in fun and creative ways.

Attending Musical and Performance at Åsane Folk High School was incredibly fun and educational. We worked on several exciting projects where we, as a class, developed our own performances and products. Collaborating closely to create something that tells a story, and that we could all be proud of, gave me a strong sense of community and creative joy.

I have taken this experience with me to further studies in musical theater, especially daring to contribute creatively and put my own stamp on what I do. I learned the importance of being part of a process, not just as a performer, but as a co-creator.

One of the highlights was when we put on Legally Blonde, where I played the role of Warner. I was given great freedom to shape the character myself – and it was simply the most fun I’ve ever had in a production! Åsane taught me that hard work and joy can go hand in hand, and that having fun on stage will always rub off on the audience.

My year in Musical and Performance at Åsane Folk High School was truly one of my best! When I received the call from the principal that they had chosen me as a scholarship student for the program, I quickly seized the opportunity. And I don’t regret it for a second. This year, I’ve truly learned to let loose. We put on many different projects, everything from several musicals to monologues, concerts, and we participated in many workshops in performing arts. My class staged the musical Grease, and I got to play Danny Zuko. This was very scary at first, as I didn’t quite believe I was good enough, but program teacher Karina was incredibly good at pushing me just enough so that I dared to take the final step into the role myself. I quickly learned that you only look silly on stage if you’re not having fun on stage. Even though this was just one year, it feels like I’m left with a lot of experience that I can take with me further in the theater/musical field, but also in everyday life. You develop so much during this year, so I like to say that a year at a folk high school is like 5 years in ‘real life’.

Taking Musical and Performance is the best choice I’ve made! It’s a program that has given me challenges, community, and experiences for life.

Even though I didn’t have much experience before, I’ve developed both individually and as part of a larger collaboration. The program hours are filled with everything from singing, dancing, theater, conversations, work, and fun. If we don’t have program hours, it’s because we’re on tour showing our projects. There’s never a boring day!

Through Musical, I get a break from reality where I can put on a costume and become a completely different character. And in collaboration with my classmates, it’s never been scary to make a fool of myself or step out of my comfort zone.

Musical and Performance has given me tons of experience and personal development! It’s a safe space to explore your own abilities and collaboration with others! Highly recommended!

My year in Musical and Performance was the best year of my life.

Throughout the year, we did many different things; put on self-produced shows, took trips into town, went on a class trip to Voss, and much more. It only lasted one year, but the experiences made it feel like a lifetime.

I made memories and friends that I’ll have for life, but there’s one experience that stands out the most – the Christmas cabaret. It was the first time I stood on stage and had a solo song. I wore a beautiful black dress, a white feather boa, and sang Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch me. It’s one of my best memories because it was the first time I actually dared to be myself and just let loose.

I highly recommend Musical and Performance. It’s a choice you’ll never regret, and a year you’ll always look back on. You gain knowledge and experiences that will help you throughout life, and friends with whom you’ll share fantastic experiences.

My year in musical and performance has given me so much. I came here with very little prior experience, but that didn’t matter at all!

Everyone had different backgrounds, which allowed us to learn so much from each other! Every class was different, which I really liked. Dance classes, singing lessons, theater games, working on projects, and much more!!

Interrail was truly a memory for life! Being on a trip with such a great group and experiencing everything together with them. Watching musicals, being tourists, workshops, bike tours, silent disco, and much more fun!

The year at Åsane in general has been so wonderful and educational. I’ve become more self-confident, gained more professional competence, and made memories I’ll never forget. And not least, friendships that will last a lifetime!

Åsane will always have a special place in my heart!<3

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