EXPRESSIVE CONTEMPORARY DANCE – ELINA PIRINEN

This course delves into the libidinal-anatomical wonders of the dancing body, embracing the intimate, sensual, and wild-horse energetic performative. Participants will explore the connections between their subconscious landscapes and given movement techniques, offering them to the dancing body as deeply lived experiences and outwardly articulated expressions.

Throughout the week, we will engage in various movement, dance, and poetic anatomical sensitization exercises, surfing on waves of profound joy, libidinal connections, affect, intuition, magic, absurdity, wildness, self-entertainment, rising agency, obsessions, and whimsical fantasies.
The dance born from the practices proposed by Pirinen and the practitioner’s own exploration manifests in different forms, meanings, aesthetics, qualities, events, situations, and temperaments—as both a subjective and collective force. The deep nature of humanity also bursts forth, spilling into the core of dancing embodiment.

Elina Pirinen is an internationally acclaimed dance artist, musician, and lyricist, as well as the mother of little Ruusu and Irinja the cat. She divides her time between Helsinki and the shores of Kalliojärvi, working across the globe.
In her art, she seeks magical forces of different natures, dark humor, solace, hope, an insatiable thirst for life, deep joy, creative mischief, both secret and open affective connections to others, the unique language of art as an act of beautiful weirdness, and powerful, sensual bodily explorations into both nocturnal and daylight consciousness.
Like a placental connection, her work is deeply tied to feminist libidinal energy and intelligence. Pirinen’s pieces have been performed worldwide, with her latest large-scale works Doves and Bloods at Viirus Theatre (2024) and Mortal Tropical Dances at Norrlandsoperan (2024). She is represented by the international agency Plan B.
www.elinapirinen.com

Photo: Venla Helenius