Rea-Liina Brunou

At the Saari Residence, Rea-Liina Brunou will be developing a new method of movement that is based on both Authentic Movement, the Klein technique and the rhythmic articulation (in relation to the music it is paired with) typical of ballet, and combining it with an inspection of the motives of different characters. She calls the method the Pedestrian Ballet. By combing three different methods, their uniqueness as forms of bodily movement is clarified, and familiar methods are melded into an energy and aesthetic all of its own.

During her residency, Rea-Liina will be applying the technique to the planning and creation of two new works. One is a choreography for two dancers that is due to première in the autumn of 2016 and currently runs under the working title Pedestrian Ballet – Tragédies. The work’s research question is how inspecting and attempting to identify with the secondary characters of ballet classics, for example Hilarion (Giselle), Alain (La Fille mal gardée) or Bennon (Swan Lake), affects Authentic Movement. The tragedy of the work stems from the structural secondary nature of the characters and the unattainability of dreams generally associated with the ballet; a conflict between desire and concreteness within the body of the dancer.

This problematic of dualism is unravelled by delving into the method of movement. By expanding the dancers focus both inward and outward – from themselves to something else, something unfamiliar – we find a place where the boundaries of the ego are dismantled, freedom and intuition meld into knowledge, and the dimensions of the body-mind are clearly drawn for the audience to see. From tragedy emerges hidden comedy, from heaviness emerges lightness. The aim is to find a path to an existence and dance that is empathetic and splits dualisms (mind/body, sense/sensibility, myself/others, high/low culture).

The other work that the new method will be applied to is a collaboration with climate researcher Ilona Riipinen. Brunou and Riipinen are working on a performance for the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma’s /theatre.now event about the manifoldness of climate change as a phenomenon, information, and the interaction between man and the environment; it is about the relationship between understanding oneself and environmental change. The work will be performed already during the residency period on October 16th, 2015.

Rea-Liina Brunou (b. 1982) is a free artist working with dance, video and performance art. In her latest works, Rea-Liina has contemplated the form of time, its movement within the body and in an environment, the relationship between personal and shared experiences, and the boundaries between being seen and being hidden. She is a Master of Arts in Dance.

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