Amalgam Melee sets off from the artist’s inner contradictions and frictions in relation to cultural heritage, brownness, whiteness, hierarchies of power and violence in the context of Finnish society. On stage Peura has pink tsinelas (Tagalog)/flip-flops and a hela belt with a knife. These objects symbolize different aspects of her cultural heritage. With these objects she works with these questions and contradictions exploring the body where the mechanisms of white supremacy are present both as the one exercising power and the one subjected to it.
"Amalgam melee" refers to a chaotic or disorderly situation where various elements or entities have merged into a single, mixed-up mass in a disorganized manner. "Amalgam" implies a mixture or combination, while "melee" suggests a confused or disorderly situation involving struggle or conflict. The work delves into the emotional and expressive body; within the conflicts of this third space, as the means and potential to reach a political sense of self.
Credits
Choreography, concept, performance: Marika Peura
Sound design: Tiikka Drama
Spatial design: Una Auri
Light design: Luca Sirviö
Dramaturgy: Caroline Suinner, Edgar Gonzalez
Costume design: Helmi Hagelin
Production: Zodiak – Center for New Dance, Kaisa Nieminen, Marika Peura
Supported by: Kone Foundation
This process has been inspired of/references
Inay by Thea Loo (documentary)
the tool of dialectical materialism
Wei-Chin Hwang: Demystifying and Addressing Internalized Racism and Oppression Among Asian Americans
Mason Majszak: The Epistemic Blindness of White Solipsism
Jan Louie Segundo Uy (2022): Filipino Migrants’ Experiences of Resilience against Racism and Discrimination in Finland
Daria Krivonos: White Nation and Anti-racist Lessons for Feminism
Audre Lorde: The Uses of Anger: Responding to racism
Frantz Fanon: on Violence
Rançoise Vergès: A feminist theory on violence
Eid, Hubara, Suinner, Beilinson: Third Culture Kids
Threadings. - The role of the artist is to load the gun. (podcast)
Beef (netflix series)
Blue Eye Samurai (netflix series)
My eternal love for freestyle hip hop dance & culture
Music
Ruby Iberra - Us
Liturgy
Deli Girls
Tyler, the Creator - IGOR
Sophie
Skrillex
Death Grips
Thank you
Teresita Peura, Irja Halmela, Teresita Ruutu, Lydia Vamvouras, Emiel Riiko, Meriam Trabelsi, Haliz Yosef, Säde Rinne, Hanna-Kaisa Tiainen, Sara Hirn/Stoa, Ylioppilasteatteri, everyone at the test audience.
Bios
Marika Peura is a Finnish choreographer with Philippine heritage, based in Helsinki. She works interdisciplinarily in the fields of dance and contemporary performance art, working particularly from the emotionality, poetics, and politics that emerge from the experiential nature of the body. Peura graduated from the master's program in choreography at the University of the Arts Helsinki's Theatre Academy in 2020. As part of her contemporary dance BA studies in Uniarts Helsinki she also studied at HZT's Dance, Context, Choreography program in Berlin. Her dance background is in freestyle hip hop and more broadly in street and club dance culture. Peura was awarded the Culture's Future Award at the Finnish Culture Gala in November 2023, together with her collaborator Kaisa Nieminen.
In her previous work, down below things shudder (2023), co-choreographed with Kaisa Nieminen, they delved into the intimacy of the dancing body, exploring its emotionality, sensuality, sexuality, and the energies and logics of social dancing at the intersection of club/rave dance and contemporary choreography. In her upcoming project (2025), Peura will deepen her exploration of physical intimacy with her Filipino mother, seeking ways to redefine intimacy between an adult mother and daughter. This project is a continuation of Amalgam Melee, exploring how the structures of racism, patriarchy, and class intertwine with the question of physical intimacy.
Una Auri is a scenographer, designer, and performance artist who graduated from the scenography master's program at Aalto University. In their praxis they focus on collaborative methods. When doing spatial design, considering differences in points of view, is central to their work with spatial, material and visual solutions. In their artistic work, they have explored how space can challenge binary, hierarchical, and normative thinking. Auri is particularly interested in mixing up so-called highbrow and lowbrow aesthetics, viewing rest as an anti-capitalist working method, and approaching design through the lens of neuroqueerness.
Luca Sirviö is a Helsinki-based freelance lighting designer, who graduated from the University of the Arts Theatre Academy in 2019 with a Master's degree in Theatre Art, working mostly in contemporary dance and theatre. They explore performances as total compositions in which the role of light, aesthetic, rhythm and logic are always redefined according to the needs of each piece. Sirviö is interested in the transcendence of categories, the overlapping of genres and the oscillation between the recognisable and the unknown. Sirviö also spends their time in music, another of their favourite genres, as a soloist, guitarist and songwriter in the touring band Teini-Pää.
Caroline Suinner is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and cultural worker known for projects concentrating on representations of our diverse realities and gathering together presentations of emotion and identity rooted experiences. Currently this means affecting as a dramaturg, DJ/MC, dancer, vocalist and performance artist. Suinner is sparked by space and identity oriented, visual, immersive and experimental art projects that have the examination of safety and radical joy of marginalized people at their core.
Tiikka Drama is a Helsinki based non-binary queer artist, who uses sound as their main creative output. Tiikka uses sound’s psychophysical aspects to mix sensitive soundscapes and dramatic compositions to support the desired emotional feeling of the piece. With more than 17 years of experience in producing sound and music, Tiikka is a highly skilled and experienced sound artist.
Helmi Hagelin (born 1996) is an artist and costume designer who takes part in social conversation through visual means. With their work and art they question and make visible social structures and their impacts. Currently, they are interested in Intersectionality and how members of minorities are seen in society. They study these topics from the perspective of a queer Sámi. Helmi Hagelin is an industrial and brand designer from the line of wearable design.
Edgar Gonzalez is a Helsinki based political activist. Joined the Communist youth of Madrid in 1999, Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain in 2005. Experienced in organizing trade union committees in workplaces from different industry sectors. As practice he uses Dialectical Materialism to analyze socio-political-economic changes and developments. Interested in discourses against Western hegemony, nationalism and imperialism. He enjoys walking in the city wondering why there is a monument of a fascist riding a horse in front of Helsinki's museum of contemporary arts.
Kaisa Nieminen is a dancer-choreographer. Her dance background is in street dance; mainly in hip hop and waacking/punking. She graduated with a master's degree in choreography from the Inter-University for Dance Berlin (HZT) in 2019. Nieminen is also a member of the rap group Pimeä Hedelmä. Working in hip hop culture and in the contemporary art dance field, she strives to reflect on her own whiteness, the privileges it brings and questions in relation to the brown cultures.
Performance dates and content notes
Thu 5.9. at 19 (premiere)
Zodiak Stage, The Cable Factory, Helsinki
Sar 7.9. at 19
Sun 8.9. at 15
Tue 10.9. at 19
Wed 11.9. at 19
Fri 13.9. at 19
Sat 14.9. at 19
Tue 17.9. at 19
Wed 18.9. at 19
Thu 19.9. at 19
Duration: appr. 60 minutes
Content notes:
Theater haze, flickering lights, sudden loud sounds. The performer will be handling a blade knife on stage during the performance. The performance deals with the themes of power structures and violence.
Age recommendation: 13+
(Young audience members should be able to discuss about the themes afterwards with a trusted adult)
