Bente Alice Westgård is a choreographer and dancer. She studied at the University of Bergen, the School of Contemporary Dance, Oslo, Stockholm University and the Norwegian Academy of Music before graduating with an MA in choreography from the Oslo Academy of the Arts in 2017.

In Westgård's work, practicing dance is about insisting on being in the very situation of dancing. What kind of strategies are required of the practitioner? Should one give in, be critical, allow oneself to be absorbed, have distance? These are questions she asks herself continuously in her work. The aesthetic expression of the dance is informed by postmodernism in the sense that the body is seen as an object - which creates a distance - but the consequence of this perspective is that the dancer must have a sharp presence and a compelling proximity to the movement material. This presence, and this closeness, can in itself create an emotional effect that is far removed from postmodern thinking. This is a kind of paradox that forms a core in Westgård's choreographic and executive work.