Evening of two solo works

On the opening day of the festival, the premiere of Katja Sallinen’s solo work what prevents from being will be presented alongside Leevi Rauhalahti’s solo work Wounding the World. With a single ticket, you can experience both performances on the same evening.

what prevents from being

“what prevents from being” is a dance piece for anyone who has ever felt out of place, like too much, too little, or just existed a little awkwardly.

The piece deals with imposter syndrome, shame, and the pressure of mere existence in a gently anarchist way. The goal is not to hide or resolve the uncertainty and awkwardness, but to learn to live with them. At times, they are even invited into a cautious embrace.

The work is built on attempts, stumbles, waiting, tolerating, exposure, and starting over. The exposed body seeks for glimpses of freedom even in the most constricted situations.

“You don’t have to be a roller skater in order to roller skate.”

-Katja Sallinen, 2026

Wounding the World

“Wounding the World” is a solo dance work choreographed and performed by Leevi Rauhalahti. The solo researches phallocentrism through the lens of a genderqueer conscientious objector and how our patriarchal world is obsessed in reigning through placing violence on bodies.

The solo begins with the body struggling in the aftermath of a battle. A lament for gender-neutral bodies is uttered, escalating into a totalitarian choreography that forces the dancer in a self-sabotaging phrase. However, this exercise of power on the body lays the very foundation for an alternative world, where even our bipedaling is questioned. The body begins a quest to exit the binary bounds, towards some secret third thing from the man/woman dichotomy, and poses a question: is the gendered understanding of the body within the body itself, or in our perspective on it?

In the end, something has changed. The body has been released from its chains, both internally and externally, and so the initial lament, now reproduced, sounds different. We might’ve won the fight, but there is still a war.

“Wounding the World” is a proposal from Rauhalahti for everyone to challenge their pre-existing views on gender and violence.