How the Land Lies

Time

19:00 - 21:00

Location

Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava

Contact

Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava

@soltumatutantsulava

Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava

Buy tickets

“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. Dancers from Argentina, Japan, Croatia and Estonia use their experiences living in Estonia to show the influence words have to our bodies and movement.

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.

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.

Participating dancers in Estonia are Lea Blau who is an artist from Croatia. She graduated the first CPPM master course and is currently living and working in Estonia.
Angel Casal is an Argentinian who participated in the European Voluntary Service programme in 2011-2012 in Estonia and has lived here ever since.
Rodrigo Chavero is an Argentinian choreographer who moved to Estonia in 2021.
Shion Yokoo-Ruttas was born in Japan and arrived in Estonia as an exchange student in 2016 to the Viljandi Culture Academy choreography department where she graduated.

Laura Cemin (Italy/Finland) and Bianca Hisse (Brasil/Norway) both operate at the intersection of visual art, performance and choreography. Their work, often presented in galleries and non-traditional performance spaces, focuses on the relation between language and social circulation and on how contemporary discourses influence mobility. These topics are at the core of both their individual practices, as well as their collaborative body of work. “How the Land Lies” is their first stage performance as a duo.

Choreograpgers: Laura Cemin, Bianca Hisse
Performers and co-creators: Keithy Kuuspu, Lea Blau, Angel Casal, Rodrigo Chavero, Shion Yokoo-Ruttas
Sound designers and live performances: Vera Vice
Light designer: Sofia Ivarsson
Costume designer: Kairi Mändla
Coproduction: Black Box Theater, Kiasma Theater, Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL)
Duration: 45 min
Supported by: 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, Estonian Cultural Endowment, City of Helsinki, Arts promotion centre Finland

Original cast: Bianca Hisse, Kazue Ikeda, Keithy Kuuspu, Mariê Mazer, Nassim Meki