The Women of Odin Teatret: Creativity, Challenge, Legacy

Abstract

This chapter highlights how the women of Odin Teatret have not only forged and quietly insisted upon their own creative space, but also been instrumental in creating lasting and significant change within the shifting and evolving group. Iben Nagel Rasmussen was the first to introduce individualized training and to insist on her own pupils, developing the autodidactic origins of the laboratory and leading breakaway groups. Similarly, Roberta Carreri developed creative-based training, evolving this into the Odin’s first solo performance, Judith (1987). Julia Varley has become a significant figure internationally through her championing of women through The Magdalena Project. The chapter seeks to demonstrate that this vigorous group of women remains at the center of Odin Teatret’s collective creation and crucial to its success.