Electa Woodbridge Behrens

Norwegian version of this page Norwegian Theatre Academy

Norwegian version of this page Position

Associate Professor

Contact

+4769608659

electa.w.behrens@hiof.no

Study place

Fredrikstad

Office nr.

Bio

Electa Woodbridge Behrens has been employed as an Associate Professor at Norwegian Theatre Academy (NTA), Østfold University College, since 2011, and a tenured faculty member and program coordinator for the Bachelor's program in Acting since 2019.

She holds a Practice as Research (PaR) Ph.D. from Kent University (2011), a PaR master's degree from Exeter University, UK (2003), and a dual bachelor's degree in theater and anthropology from Vassar College (USA). Behrens is a performer, researcher, and pedagogue. Her primary artistic research focuses on the emerging field of vocal composition, acting, and voice training; intersectionality; aurality studies; darkness; New Materialism and Object-Oriented Feminism; and performing communities of dissent (Iversen). Behrens has recently been involved in the externally funded and international artistic development project "Material Strategies," funded by Diku (2018-2019). She has performed with many companies and artists across Europe and the USA, including Odin Teatret (Denmark), Richard Schechner (USA), Marina Abramovic (Serbia), Dah Theatre (Serbia), F2 Performance Project (Greece), Saska Rakef (Slovenia), Robin Riegels (formerly of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, Norway), Instabili Vaganti (Italy), and the Center for Performance Research (Wales). She has published in journals such as Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training (Routledge), Performance Research, and Critical Stages. Behrens is also a guest lecturer at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) and has taught at the Nordic Institute for Scene and Studio (NISS), now incorporated into Kristiania University College. She supervises master's projects at NTA/HiØ and has experience in Ph.D. committee work.

Academic interests

performer training, voice training, politics of listening, intersectionality, vocal dramaturgies, aurality studies, darkness

Projects

No ongoing projects

Research groups

Performing Arts Research Network - PARN

Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2023). Voice (As and In) Touch. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. ISSN 1944-3927. 14(2), p. 221–236. doi: 10.1080/19443927.2022.2161615.
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2021). YOU and ME -where and how do we meet? Critical Stages/Scènes critiques. ISSN 2409-7411. Show summary
YOU and ME—Where and How Do We Meet is a 40 minute film presenting our research focused on the intersectional materiality of the voice and the potentialities of aural diversity and audience agency. Within the larger framework of new materialism, aurality studies and critical race theory, we situate our work between Nancy, Kendrick, Eidsheim, Behar, DiAngelo, Gordon-Cook, Bonefant and Oliveros. This film examines how the video article format: 1. exposes and implicates the researcher’s own embodied positionality. We are trying to queer and appropriate whiteness: to take different faces and voices of whiteness and tweak, tear and intensify them—so that they are no longer invisible or appear harmonious. We attempt to disturb the normalcy of the white frame of listening and thinking. 2. allows for a wider range of language and non-language use, which might communicate the material more effectively and disturb normalized relationships between text, song and sound as meaning carriers. 3. complexifies the theoretical aspect of the work by the very fact of embodying the messiness of the space between “clean” theory and embodied action (Spatz, Campbell and Farrier). This format offers a way to, as Donna Haraway writes, “stay with the trouble.” This video is nothing if you do not have a conversation afterwards. Dramaturgically, it is a “score for audience.” The performance is really happening in your head. As you watch we ask you: when do you feel most comfortable, or uncomfortable? You and me, as vocal material, where and how do we meet? Keywords: Aural diversity, vocal material, critical whiteness, intersectionality, new materialism, object-oriented feminism, ethics
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2021). This is Not a Manifesto. Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts. ISSN 1352-8165. 25(8), p. 11–14. doi: 10.1080/13528165.2020.1930763.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). Devisers in the dark: reconfiguring a material voice practice. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. ISSN 1944-3927. 10(3), p. 395–409. doi: 10.1080/19443927.2019.1637372. Full text in Research Archive
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). Training a performer’s voices. In Zarilli, Phillip; Sasitharan, T. & Kapur, Anuradha (Ed.), Intercultural Acting and Performer Training. Routledge. ISSN 9781138352148. doi: 10.1080/19443927.2016.1222302.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Berkeley-Schultz, Ditte (2017). Songs of tradition as training in higher education? Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies (JIVS). ISSN 2057-0341. 2(2), p. 187–200. doi: 10.1386/jivs.2.2.187_1.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2016). Training a performer's voices. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. ISSN 1944-3927. 7(3), p. 453–471. doi: 10.1080/19443927.2016.1222302.

View all works in Cristin

Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2023). This Paper Will Touch You – You Will Touch This Paper: investigating intimacy and consent in teacher touch, partner touch and self-touch in voice training for performers.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2023). Ethics and Ensemble in the Institution.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2023). Unpacking Voice (As and In) Touch.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2023). Talking the talk and walking the walk: destabilizing the canon in international singing pedagogy.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Berkeley, Ditte (2023). Polyphonic life.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2022). Questioning Quality: Invisible Legacies. Show summary
Tapra Conference 2022, Essex, UK 13.09.2022 Vitenskapelig foredrag, «Questioning Qualities: invisible legacies» Av Øystein Elle og Electa Behrens. Abstract: This presentation will introduce a research-based pedagogical project, which looked to dismantle the legacies of ‘quality’, derived from traditions of Western classical music and how they inform and inhibit work with music in performance. This project was done with a group of 3rd year conservatory acting students. Attempting to decenter western perspectives, we explored ‘quality’ as something plural, shifting and contextual. We asked, can we even hear a quality which is unfamiliar to us? (Eidsheim) In the project each student should self-identify the traditions they come from, articulate the ways in which they are loyal or irreverent to that tradition and take responsibility as co-devisers for how other students might enter their worldmaking via music. This project culminated in a collective performance event including all student’s work with a dramaturgy which allowed different ‘qualities’ to stand next to each other while disrupting narratives of ‘better than’. Methodologically, this project explored a model of dynamic leadership, where the voice teachers did not have the last word on ‘quality control’, and instead we tried to ‘led the material lead’. The responsibility of self-determining quality was risky for students and triggering for pedagogues. It exposed how deeply notions of quality, are inscribed in young students today, even in who have little knowledge of these traditions. For the teachers, it asked us to ‘teach’ from another positionality. This research is grounded in and contributes to fields of aurality studies (Konstantinos, Eidsheim, Kendrick), aural diversity (Drever), intersectional pedagogy and movements such as FLUXUS and the field of extended composition.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2022). Naked Teachers. Show summary
ELIA Biennial conference, Uniarts, Helsinki 24.11.2022 Vitenskapelig foredrag og workshop, Electa Behrens og Øystein Elle Abstract How does who we are affect what and how we teach in the current climate of 2022? This is a speculative workshop for teachers in which we will ‘undress’ our own positionality and power. How do we work with and against our own intersectional identities in ways that make space for student agency and our own creativity? How can we ‘stay with the trouble’ (Harraway) of our own strengths and limitations and ‘queer use’ (Ahmed) them in productive ways? How do we stage ourselves? Presenters are looking to create a space where we as teachers can fail, ask stupid questions, and laugh at ourselves, to be vulnerable and courageous.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2021). Privilege in the Arts Panel Discussion.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge; Elle, Øystein & Meyer, Ruth Wilhelmine (2021). Quality Carneval .
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2021). YOU and ME as Vocal Material - Performing and Queering Whiteness . Show summary
Electa Behrens and Øystein Elle YOU AND ME: Performing and Queering Whiteness This presentation presents excerpts from our recent video essay, “YOU and ME – Where and How do we Meet”, framed by a performative presentation and interaction with audience. The research focused on the intersectional materiality of the voice within the larger theoretical context of aurality studies. Particularly: our voices as white performers and academics. We look to unpack the relationship between a writer’s positionality and their material – specifically how whiteness ‘works’ in different formats of documentation. Acknowledging the normalized whiteness of academic writing as a format, and music theory as a “white male” foundational reference point when working with sonic arts (Neely 2020). Our research examines how the video format: 1. exposes and implicates the researcher’s own embodied positionality, 2. allows for a wider range of language and non-languauge use, which might communicate the material more effectively, and has the potential to reach a larger audience and 3. complexifies the theoretical aspect of the work by the very fact of embodying the messiness of the space between ‘clean’ theory and embodied action (Spatz 2021, Campbell and Farrier 2015). This format offers a way to, as Donna Harraway writes, ‘stay with the trouble’. Dr. Electa Behrens is program-responsible for the BA Acting at Norwegian Theatre Academy. She has performed with companies/artists throughout Europe/USA including Odin Teatret, Richard Schechner, Marina Abramovic and the CPR, and published in journals such as Theatre, Dance and Performance Training and Performance Research. Research areas: intercultural training, sonic and listening led dramaturgies, voice, darkness and performer agency in training. Dr. Øystein Elle, associate professor at Østfold University College, is a multidisciplinary artist, singer and composer. Elle is a classically trained countertenor with a further specialization in extended vocal techniques. His research and performance spans, baroque, Dadaism, western avant-garde traditions and intercultural and transdisciplinary projects. He has toured over 30 productions to Europe, Asia and the Americas. For the past 12 years been active as a creator, performer and researcher in art experiences and performances for the youngest children's audience on which he is currently co-editing an anthology.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge; Lie-Jensen, Anette Christensen & Røste, Rannveig (2021). Digitalisering av den direkte kontakten med studentene – erfaringer fra koronapandemien. Forskningspolitikk. ISSN 0333-0273. 44(3), p. 10–13.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2020). Sit with Me.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2020). YOU AND ME AS VOCAL MATERIAL: Where and How do we Meet III.
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2020). YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – LISTENING TO THE SPACE BETWEEN II. Show summary
This performance lecture explores listening intersectionally (see Thomaidis 2017): across identities, categories and positionalities of class, ability, race, ethnicity, gender, age and sexuality. It asks the question: if sounding is a practice of intermaterial vibration (Eidsheim 2017), what might a new materialist approach to voicing and listening offer? How do we experience the borders between listening/sounding, as performer with audience and objects or as pedagogue with students? Looking at listening across the range of vocal material, including song, text and sound, this performance lecture reflects on the plasticity of material, (its ability to flex, to a degree, but also its potential to combust) (Behar, 2016) and the grey areas surrounding topics such as ownership, ethics and appropriation. Within the larger framework of new materialism and aurality studies, we situate our work between Nancy, Kendrick, Eidsheim, Behar, Gordon-Cook, Bonefant and Oliveros. The lecture’s structure is a dialogue between theory, practice and audience engagement with a good dose of self-irony and deep questioning. Øystein and Electa are bodies and voices on stage. Together they will attempt to be present with themselves as vocal material and to entangle with the multiple others present in the space. Through performative experiments including audience invitations, they investigate the dialogue, and the possible construction of meanings, interpretations happening in the meeting between the voicer on one side, and the receiver on the other side; creating feedback loops between present and not present bodies. This research is part of the research project in development: Material Borderlands.
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – WHERE AND HOW DO WE MEET? Performance lecture as part of the Material Strategies research presentation.
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL -Listening to the space between . Show summary
Abstract This performance lecture explores listening intersectionally (see Thomaidis 2017): across identities, categories and positionalities of class, ability, race, ethnicity, gender, age and sexuality. It asks the question: if sounding is a practice of intermaterial vibration (Eidsheim 2017), what might a new materialist approach to voicing and listening offer? How do we experience the borders between listening/sounding, as performer with audience and objects or as pedagogue with students? Looking at listening across the range of vocal material, including song, text and sound, this performance lecture reflects on the plasticity of material, (its ability to flex, to a degree, but also its potential to combust) (Behar, 2016) and the grey areas surrounding topics such as ownership, ethics and appropriation. Within the larger framework of new materialism and aurality studies, we situate our work between Nancy, Kendrick, Eidsheim, Behar, Gordon-Cook, Bonefant and Oliveros. The lecture’s structure is a dialogue between theory, practice and audience engagement with a good dose of self-irony and deep questioning. Øystein and Electa are bodies and voices on stage. Together they will attempt to be present with themselves as vocal material and to entangle with the multiple others present in the space. Through performative experiments including audience invitations, they investigate the dialogue, and the possible construction of meanings, interpretations happening in the meeting between the voicer on one side, and the receiver on the other side; creating feedback loops between present and not present bodies.
Elle, Øystein & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). You and Me as vocal material. Where and How do we meet . Show summary
YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – WHERE AND HOW DO WE MEET? Øystein and Electa are bodies and voices on stage. Together they will attempt to be present with themselves as vocal material and to entangle with the multiple others present in the space. Øystein and Electa have similar but different approaches and trainings, ranging from Bel Canto singing to classical text work, extendend vocal technique to the sensuality of sound in the dark where objects and voices meet. Opening up this range of vocal material, including song, text and sound, they will look to extend the borders of materials and open up the grey areas surrounding topics such as ownership, ethics and appropriation. Relevant theory comes from OOO (object oriented ontology), OOF (object oriented feminism), aurality studies and voice studies. This presentation will include some embodied work and a reflective section.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). SONIC WORLD WITH VOICES AND ACCORDION.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). Performing Futures: Reconsidering Voice Training .
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge; Elle, Øystein; Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla; Graffer, Sidsel; Holm, Ingvild & Oredsson, Jakob [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2019). Material Strategies workshop and sharing.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2019). Performance Lecture: YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – WHERE AND HOW DO WE MEET.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2019). YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – WHERE AND HOW DO WE MEET? Performance lecture as part of the Material Strategies research presentation.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge & Elle, Øystein (2019). Performance lecture: YOU AND ME – AS VOCAL MATERIAL – LISTENING TO THE SPACE BETWEEN.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). Artistic Research in the field of Voice Studies.
Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla & Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2019). What the Body Says: How a materialist approach to vocal actions can open for new dramaturgical strategies to performing personal stories.
Behrens, Electa Woodbridge (2015). Manifesto in Praxis; Calling for a (Re)considered approach to training the Performers Voice. In Ely Seidman, Karmenlara & Eeg-Tverbakk, Camilla (Ed.), Responsive Listening: Theater Training for Contemporary Spaces. Brooklyn Arts Press. ISSN 978-1-936767-36-6. p. 54–69.