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Bye Mr. Balanchine (2022)
Contemporary dance solo
Duration: 30 minutes
Premiere 3.12.2022
Liikelaituri Tampere, Finland
Bye Mr. Balanchine is a solo about a woman’s and dancer’s body image by dance artist Tuulia Soininen. The piece gives a gentle middle finger to ballet choreographer George Balanchine (1904-1983). Balanchine is recognized to have created the body ideal for dancers to be long limbed, linear and alarmingly skinny. Throughout the piece Soininen navigates through personal experiences, body ideals and the dance world. Is it possible amongst all this to hear and appreciate one’s own body?
The piece is filled with irony, ballet and personal experiences. It offers relatable moments for everyone who have experienced body criticism. It presents moments of empathy, humor and an essence of "fuck all this patriarchal body image shit".
“Western dance forms hide their white elitism well, safeguarding their power against a number of dangerous intruders: black bodies, dark bodies, disabled bodies, sexual bodies, leaking bodies, fat bodies, wrong bodies.” (Claid, 2006)
Premiere 3.12.2022
Photographs: Veera Lintula
Dance & choreography Tuulia Soininen
Photography Teemu Paukamainen
Music
Caterina Barbieri, Lyra Pramuk: Knot of Spirit
Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Serenade for String Orchestra in C Major, Op. 48, TH 48 - II. Waltz, New York City Ballet Orchestra
Snarky Puppy and Metropole Orkest: Atchafalaya
Meredith Monk: Dawn
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