Extreme States of Being
Orsolina28 Art Foundation is thrilled to welcome three young, emerging choreographers for the 2026 edition of Call for Creation.
Nicola Wills’ “Extreme States of Being” aims to explore how certain emotions manifest so strongly within the body that they have no choice but to escape, as part of Wills’ broader goal of creating work that encourages personal and social reflection personal and social understanding.
The work was inspired by the choreographer’s visit to the Edvard Munch Museum and the artist’s famous painting “The Scream”, representing “a vast and infinite scream passing through nature”. What struck Wills the most is that the three different versions of the image (print, painting, and drawing) were all created on card or paper, fragile materials that break down easily.
In “Extreme States of Being” this becomes a beautiful metaphor for the body: robust enough to carry our emotional weight, yet so fragile that immense emotional force creates physical action, like a scream, cry or a laugh.
Wills uses the imagery within Munch’s work (gripping images, grotesque faces, nuanced intimacy and duality) to further develop her emotional-somatic approach within her choreographic language. This abstract narrative will manifest through three dancers, whose interactions will develop personal and interpersonal tableaus that take the masks off a collected facade and go deeper into what is beneath.
Nicola Wills
Nicola Wills comes from Adelaide, South Australia, where she completed her dance training at Terry Simpson Studios. In 2009, she graduated from Annesley College with Honors and won the Silver Medal at the RAD Genee competition in Singapore. After completing a two-year traineeship with the Queensland Ballet Professional program, she joined Ballet Dortmund in 2012, before moving to Belgium in 2013 to dance with the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (FKA: Royal Ballet of Flanders).
Wills was promoted to demi-soloist in 2017 and during her time in the company has performed pieces by and worked with choreographers such as William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Pina Bausch, Jiří Kylián, Ohad Naharin and many more. Whilst continuing to dance and make her own work, Wills is currently studying a part-time Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at the University of South Australia, to aid her better understanding the human condition as it is her wish to create nuanced work that is socially and emotionally relevant.
During her time in the Ballet van Vlaanderen, she has made 8 stage works and 2 dance films for the company’s in-house choreographers’ program. In 2021, her piece The Glass Ceiling, won her the National Youth Ballet of Hamburg production prize in the 35th Hannover Choreographic competition, with Gerard Davis highlighting her as a ‘New Name to Watch’ in the Dance Europe 2021 Critics Choice awards. In 2023, she has completed her first full-length production with the Kennesaw State University summer choreographic residency in the US and is commissioned to create work for the Gent Festival program in Belgium. Her duet Two People in Love Never Shake Hands has been selected to compete in the 37th Hannover Choreographic competition and has been performed in the International Dance Gala in Genoa, Italy. In 2025, she began working as a freelancer and has since created works for the Origen cultural festival, the Albanian National Ballet, the Royal Conservatory of Dance in Madrid and other institutions.