Description
Rail2Dance in Vaasa on 2 June — dance interventions take place by the waterfront next to the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art at 16:00.
Imagine a train station, a platform, a square, or a public transport stop. How do you behave in these places? How do you move, how do you stand, what do you do?
The Rail2Dance project is based on the behavioural codes of people in public spaces. Through choreography and playful actions, the project’s dancers transform existing social conventions. With new movements, they both highlight the unspoken rules of body language and question the meaning of community, drawing attention to environments where we too often just pass each other by without noticing anything. Through the sudden appearance of pop-up dance in public spaces, we can, at least for a moment, connect to a different kind of world — one where we can break down social codes and create new ones. Even if it’s only for a moment of holding hands, singing at a train station, or lying down in a square.
Rail2Dance is a 40-day travelling dance residency that visits eight European cities, offering workshops and open dance interventions in collaboration with local dance communities. The project’s core team includes dancers Maria Naidu (Sweden), Laura Chambers (Finland), Patrik Riipinen (Finland), Sascha Paar (Austria), Alja Lacković (Slovenia), and Anna Pehrsson (Sweden). The choreographic mentor for the project is Anthony Missen (Company Chameleon, England).
In addition to the core team, local dance artists will join the project at different stops along the way. In Vaasa, the local artists for the Rail2Dance workshops are Riina Kalmi and Anthoni Levonsaari. In these workshops, the international Rail2Dance artists and local dancers share ideas for developing and creating performance interventions in public spaces.
The working period on 2 June concludes with a public urban performance by the waterfront near the Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art at around 16:00. Kalmi and Levonsaari will travel together with the core artist group the following day to Umeå, where the project continues with local dance professionals.
By moving dance from indoor stages to public spaces, the project seeks to find a new audience for contemporary dance — an audience that may in the future also find its way into theatre halls.
Rail2Dance is a collaboration between Die Theater Chemnitz (Germany), PTL – Plesni Teater Ljubljana / Dance Theatre Ljubljana (Slovenia), Dance Theatre MD (Finland), and Norrlandsoperan (Sweden). The project is funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme.
Tour schedule:
Tampere 25–30 May
Vaasa 2 June
Umeå 4–10 June
Malmö 12 June
Chemnitz (TanzModerneTanz Festival) 16–20 June
Nürnberg 23 June
Maribor 25 June
Ljubljana 28 June–2 July
Read more here: https://tanzmodernetanz.eu/en/rail2dance/