RAKSA – DANCE AT CONSTRUCTION SITE

2016

Concept, scenography & directing Reija Stenius

Choreography Mirva Keski-Vähälä

Sound design Riku-Pekka Kellokoski

Light design Mira Laine & Hanna Tammisto

On stage Jonna Lehto, Sally Davison, Mirva Keski-Vähälä, Terhi Lilja, Reija Stenius

Producers Johanna Raaste & Yusuf Albekoglu

Poster and photos Mikko Keski-Vähälä

RAKSA gives the viewer the possibility to see and experience the urban area of Kalasatama in a new way. The dance piece utilises incompleteness, and the possibilities offered by the construction area. The noisy, unfinished and disturbing environment of building is reflected as a comical playground and the visual language of colourful signs and clothing of the workers are twisted and turned up side down. The temporary performance site emphasizes the uniqueness of the event and connects it immediately to the present reality of the many changes that are constantly taking place in the city environment.

The choreography combines contemporary dance, butoh dance and physical theatre. The form of butoh celebrates the incompleteness of humanity and arises from each dancers personal history and their unique bodies.

The Kalasatama urban area is being constructed in a way that has not happened previously in Helsinki. Built beside the sea within the proximity of the underground creates a unique atmosphere.

When a new site is created there are not the habituated models of how to live there: what routes to use, what to avoid and how the inhabitants live in the area.

Construction sites and workers function as the shapers of the cityscape in this great movement of change – destroying and building anew. The sites can be invisible to passers-by, but they are an inevitable necessity preceding the changing scenery. One’s route is restricted and guided with signs and fences that modern people have learnt to read and follow like they used to follow paths in the forest almost subconsciously.