How the Land Lies is a dance performance for 5 bodies and 3 LED scrolling signs, choreographed and directed by Bianca Hisse (Brazil/Norway) and Laura Cemin (Italy/Finland) in collaboration with the Estonian choreographer Keithy Kuuspu and international dancers based in Estonia.
The LED-signs, usually encountered in public spaces as low-key advertisement signs, become means to explore how language keeps inscribing in our bodies. Navigating between kebab stand ads, tourism slogans and visa questionnaires the dancers, who themselves carry experiences of migration between countries, interact with the text scrolling on the LED panels.
Dancers are stretching the notion of what “entering” and “exiting” can be with their movement. As the words move on the screens, they are equally moved by the bodies.
Borders slowly blur: who can stay and who must leave? Who is seen and who remains hidden? What is allowed and what is forbidden? The piece is questioning how the notions of belonging, territory and borders are manifested in the contemporary world. Not just geographical borders but borders within the body and identity.
The performance is presented in multiple countries and in each of them it is adapted to the local context through the participation of local dancers, who are not from these countries.
Choreographers: Laura Cemin, Bianca Hisse
Dancers and cocreators: Keithy Kuuspu, Lea Blau, Angel Casal, Rodrigo Chavero, Shion Yokoo-Ruttas
Sound and live performance: Vera Vice
Light design: Sofia Ivarsson
Costumes: Kairi Mändla
Coproduction: Black Box Theater, Kiasma Theater, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL)
Duration: 45 min
Supporters: Eesti Kultuurkapital, Davvi – Senter for scenekunst, Frame Finland, Kulturrådet, HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme, Narva Art Residency, Nordic Culture Point, Norsk-Finsk kulturfond, Norske Billedkunstnere, PAHN Norway, Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Tvibitstigen
Original cast: Bianca Hisse, Kazue Ikeda, Keithy Kuuspu, Mariê Mazer, Nassim Meki
Premiere: 30th of March 2023 at Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava
