This workshop approaches dance and movement through what is born in the moment – here and now. Motion can emerge out of internal impulse or as reaction to external impulse, from contact with other dancers. Movement can be anything at all, and every one of us knows how to do it. Our own bodies can surprise us in the moment with what they create and what we find in them. The workshop explores our contact with ourselves and our own bodies through motion. We reach for contact with others through motion while simultaneously remaining aware of the space around us.
After graduating as a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) from Laban Centre London in 2000, Kira Riikonen has worked as a dancer in the United Kingdom. She started discovering her own choreographic voice, which continued in the Theatre Academy, from which she graduated as a Master of Arts (Dance) in 2010. She worked as the artistic director of Routa Company from 2012 to 2017, after which she has continued work as a freelance dancer in productions such as The Secret City event together with Tuukka Jukola and SFBC, Insight (solo), as part of the LCE Collective and as a choreographer in numerous theatre companies and musicals.
In 2018, Riikonen graduated as a Iyengar Yoga instructor after three-year yoga instructor training. In her current artistic work she is fascinated by themes related to the environment, well-being and sustainable development. She likes to work in collective/horizontally organised groups on the stage and in immersive works. Combining text and motion is characteristic of her works. In her exploration of motion, Kira Riikonen is interested in freedom of motion, small details, the dancer’s contact with his or her own inner voice and establishing contact with others. Dance is a way for giving room for subconscious observation and inspiration drawn from everything around you